The Art Of Losing Yourself
by pointlessfangirl
Summary: At first, Kurt is repulsed and irritated by the new, hot-tempered, smug, mysterious boy named Blaine who just couldn't seem to care about anything at all. But feelings can evolve and opinions can twist, even if it means breaking down barriers and learning how to trust in order to get there. Badboy! Blaine.
1. The Art

He puckered his lips around the end of the cigarette, his mouth creating a ring around the thin, long stick of chemicals. So terrible for you, but so delicious on the tongue.

Slowly, almost tediously, he drew in a long breath, inhaling the smoke from the cigarette. He leaned his head back onto the brick, exterior wall of McKinley High, and almost gracefully, he blew out the smoke. The stiff wall dug into his leather-clad back, and he watched the smoke drift towards the sky. Smoking was terrible for you, yes, but anyone who was walking by at the time would have to admit that it looked kind of cool.

It was literally Blaine Anderson's first day at McKinley, and he was already skipping class. He had just transferred from Dalton Academy, a private school for boys only. Blaine always thought it was funny, though, because what would a guy like him be doing in a private school? It wasn't like he even _needed_ school, anyway. As far as he knew, he could probably out smart everyone in this whole goddamn town. As soon as he was finished this last year of school, he wouldn't have to deal with teachers always up in his face, shouting "you'd better straighten up your attitude, Blaine."

That always made Blaine burst out into cruel laughter, because he was just about as straight as a hula hoop. Sexually speaking, anyway. It wasn't a huge secret, and Blaine really didn't care who knew it. It didn't stop him from being able to get any girl he could get, though...after all, sex was sex. The gender really didn't matter to Blaine, even if he usually preferred boys. It was really just a matter of getting off, for him.

Outside in the foggy parking lot of McKinley, Blaine felt...calm. Tranquil. If an airplane were to crash and explode right there in the parking lot, it wouldn't faze him. Usually, being alone like this was the only thing that could make his life feel just a little bit less dreadful. Blaine stared at the mucky gray sky, threatening to release rain any second now.

Blaine took another long, slow drag on his cigarette. He held the smoke inside of him for a few seconds before releasing it in the direction of the parking lot. He loved the feeling of the smoke filling him up, surrounding him inside and out. He loved it because he was empty on the inside, so even having something as useless as smoke bottled inside of him made him feel a little better. Most people are made out of flesh, bones, organs, arteries, blood...well, Blaine was just a shell, hollowed out from the inside. He felt nothing most of the time.

With one last breath, Blaine exhaled and threw the cigarette butt on the ground, squishing it with his shoe and crunching it into the cement ground. He had no idea what time it was at the moment, and he left his beaten-up cell phone in his locker, so Blaine sighed. School interrupted his brief moment of peace, so he just ended up walking back into the school, just before the rain started to fall and hit the pavement.

The thing with Blaine Anderson was, you could never quite pin point what type of person he was. Most people took one look at his disheveled, menacing appearance and comprehended the hint to stay away from him. No one ever really gave the kid a chance, but at the same time, he never really gave anything else a chance, either. So being alone was really the best option.

The only time where Blaine could truly feel like there was something worth in his insignificant life was when no one was talking to him. When he could be alone on days like today, where he could smoke and look up at the sky in peace. He could turn into a rock, shutting out everything unimportant to him and simply think about nothing.

It was an art, really. Not many people could master the art of losing themselves.

Some adults could almost feel bad for Blaine, thinking he was a lost puppy or something who was misguided by his parents or fell into the wrong crowd. But even though there was some truth to that, the real reason was that Blaine just didn't have anything to care about or to believe in. So what was the point of wasting his time with annoying Lima-losers?

_AN: With the end of the quite disappointing season finale of glee and the hiatus to go through, I thought I'd might write another story. Yes, as you can clearly see, it is a badboy! Blaine fic. Also, this entire fic was based off of the song "Born To Die" by the lovely miss Lana Del Rey. If you haven't heard the song, I highly recommend listening to it before you read this story. Her voice is quite a dream, and the lyrics just made me want to get at my laptop and write. I know it's been done, but I had to give it a try for myself. Also: Les Miserables trailer! Preview of the Land of Stories! _


	2. Irritation

_AN: So, I'm writing this instead of reading my french novel that's due tomorrow. But that's okay, because I'm pretty fluent in french anyway. Also, did anyone heard about Chris Colfer's book tour dates being released tomorrow? I'm really excited for that, because my parents said that if he comes close enough to here (I live in Mississauga, but let's say Chris came to Buffalo) then my parents said I could go! There's a possibility I could be meeting my hero this summer._

The second bell of the day sounded, ringing through the halls and alerting students that the next class was about to begin. Kurt was actually surprised for once, since this was probably the first time he was able to walk down the McKinley halls without having to change a slushy-stained shirt. Then again, it was only October. There was plenty of time for more of those.

Kurt slid into his seat that he was assigned to since September. He reached into his satchel, pulling out a few of his World History textbooks. Kurt looked up when he heard a small voice coming from next to him.

"Kurt," Rachel perked, taking her seat diagonal to him. It was an inconvenient seating plan, with the desks arranged in a strange, rectangular shape, but what Kurt loved the most about sitting diagonal to Rachel was that he could easily turn his head and give her funny looks whenever their history teacher gave her class the stink eye.

"I need you to help me out with something today after school," Rachel told Kurt. "I want to try something out for sectionals, and it's a duet. The only person who's voice sounds the best mixed with mine other than Finn's is yours, and I'm sure Finn won't want to sing a song about "the Wicked Witch being dead."

Kurt laughed. "Sure. Anything that saves me from sitting through another dreadful football game while I'm sandwiched in-between my dad and Finn on the sofa."

The class began. The history teacher, Ms. Bernard, began to take attendance. She held a clip board in her arms as she skimmed through the list of present students, but paused when she got to an unfamiliar name. She squinted, and then remembered that the principal notified her about a new student joining the class.

"Blaine Anderson?" Ms. Bernard called. But no one answered. The teacher had to call the mysteriously non-existing name before a jock called out, "I don't think he's here."

Kurt looked to his right. He sat at the very edge of his table, so there were two empty spots next to him. It was nice having a table all to himself, but he couldn't help but think that it re-enforced the stereotype about staying away from gays, or else you might "catch their disease."

Ms. Bernard just put her clipboard down and began the lesson, scrawling things about the French Revolution on the board in white chalk. Kurt was a focused, intelligent student, so he naturally began to take down the notes.

Kurt looked around at the class, most of which was a giant mixture of kids from totally different cliques. There were a few football players that ignored the lesson and flirted with a few cheerleaders sitting to their left, some druggies that were too stuffed up with pot and acid to even know where they were, and a few goths that doodled skulls and spiderwebs with black marker on their arms. Kurt sighed, looking down at his notes again. He couldn't help but just feel that he didn't_ belong _here, not with these Lima-Losers, not with the obnoxious, clueless people that had no ambition. That was why Kurt was going to work his hardest to somehow use his talent to get out of the cow town known as Lima.

About halfway through the lesson, the door swung open, flying so hard that it hit the blackboard behind it. It caused half the students in the classroom to jump, including Ms. Bernard, Kurt, and Rachel. Everyone looked towards the door.

There was a kid standing in the threshold, a kid that Kurt had never seen before. He was dressed in tight, dark jeans, black lace-up boots, a white t-shirt, and a shabby leather jacket that looked as if it would start ripping at the seams if the boy were to move an inch. Usually, Kurt would reprimand this type of clothing, since he was basically the heart and soul of fashion and he himself dressed to the nines, but Kurt wasn't exactly paying attention to the boy's clothes.

Kurt sucked his lips in and tried to suppress his blush as the boy leaned against the door frame. He was cute, _really_ cute... handsome, in a strange, villainy-type way. His skin was tanned and fair, with black curly hair, triangular eyebrows, the slightest hint of a stubble on his pronounced jaw, and the eyes. Oh, the eyes, that seemed to shine a bright honey color even with him standing up at the front of the classroom, was what got to Kurt. Kurt had seen plenty of hot boys before. But this boy..._well_.

He looked like nothing but trouble.

Ms. Bernard adjusted her glasses from falling off the bridge of her nose. "Can I help you?"

"Well," the boy said in a deep, careless voice, "I suppose I'm supposed to be here for class, although I could think of a million other things I could be doing right now."

Ms. Bernard pursed her lips. "What's your name?"

"Blaine," the boy responded.

"Mr. Anderson," Ms. Bernard was scowling now, "You appear to be about twenty five minutes late to class. Do you have a late slip?"

Blaine sighed. "Let it slide, granny, it's my first day of school."

There were some snickers and quiet whispers coming from the class now. Kurt's mouth almost dropped to the ground at the sound of this kid's comment.

You could practically see the steam coming out of Ms. Bernard's ears by now. "I will ask you not to use such inappropriate commentary in my class. Now, if you would, please take a seat."

Blaine eyed the class with a fierce _"what-are-you-looking-at?" _glare that made most of the students jump and look away. The jocks, who usually weren't afraid of anything, just rolled their eyes and went back to talking to the cheerleaders.

Blaine walked down the aisle that was created by the parting desks until those electrifying eyes were settled right on Kurt's.

Kurt immediately looked back down at his paper, picking up his pencil and starting to write again. The new boy had startled him, not with his dashing good looks, or the rude remarks, or the black clothing...but just those _damn eyes_ that could probably burn a hole into the desks if he stared long enough at them. They were intimidating, _saying don't mess with me._

What Kurt didn't see, however, was the smirk Blaine had on his lips when he spotted Kurt sitting alone at an empty table. And boy, did Blaine check Kurt out immensely. Blaine raked his eyes up at down the slender, pale figure with the coiffed, chestnut hair and the eyes as bright as the sea sitting with his back straight in the chair. The boy was dressed in odd clothing: black and white striped pants with white boots and a short-sleeved, red button down. Blaine usually hated kooky clothing that looked like it was pulled out of a Tim Burton movie, but for some uncanny reason, Blaine found the clothes on this boy very attractive indeed. Almost as if wearing anything else wouldn't suit him.

Well, other than just his naked body, of course.

Blaine smirked again, sitting down in at the table with the boy, one seat away from him so that there was only one empty seat in-between Kurt and Blaine. Kurt pretended like he didn't notice Blaine sitting down next to him, pretended like he didn't just inhale the sweet aroma of cologne and...was that a hint of smoke?

"Hey," Blaine whispered in a husky voice. He gently poked Kurt in the arm with his finger. "What's your name, sexy?"

Kurt's face flushed at what this boy was saying. No one had ever called him sexy before, and even if it was coming from some sleazy bad boy, he had to admit that it did make his heart beat increase. Because let's face it: a hot boy is a hot boy, no matter how icky they might be.

Kurt could feel both Blaine's and Rachel's eyes on him, making his face hot. He could see Rachel's face at the corner of his eye, her jaw hung open and her eyes wide, and just as Kurt was about to turn to her to silently beg for help, Blaine poked him again, harder this time.

"Hey," Blaine's voice was a bit louder now. "I said, what's your name?"

Kurt turned to him, putting on his most indifferent/bored looking face, as he replied, "Kurt Hummel."

Kurt didn't know why he gave Blaine his last name, but he just felt like he should, since that was how he always introduced himself. Blaine smirked yet again, and Kurt couldn't deny the blush on his cheeks.

The bell rang about twenty minutes later. Twenty long minutes of listening to Blaine pop his gum and sigh while he propped his feet up on the desk (followed by a "Mr. Anderson, feet off the desk please!" and a chuckle from the class.) Kurt was glad for the empty chair next separating the boys, creating some sort of invisible barrier, because there was no way Kurt would have been able to concentrate if Blaine was right next to him.

Kurt had third period lunch, so he was going to meet up with some of his glee club friends who also had the same lunch as him. Kurt stopped off at his locker to drop off a few books. When he was finished, he closed the locker door and jumped when he saw Blaine's face just a few inches beside his. Nonetheless, Kurt tried to shake off his surprise.

"Wanna stand any closer?" Kurt said, thankful that he had such a sharp tongue.

"Well, if you're insisting," Blaine gave a wink. Kurt was about to walk off when he felt Blaine's hand grip his bare arm. It wasn't a harsh grab, not like how he was touched by the bullies at school. It was a gentle grasp, but still firm.

"We didn't really get to have a proper introduction before," Blaine said, spinning Kurt around to face him. "I'm Blaine."

"I am aware that your name is Blaine," Kurt said, ignoring the warm tingles he got when Blaine rested his fingers around Kurt's arm. "You made that quite clear when you insulted Ms. Bernard in front of the class."

"That old hag? She deserved it if you ask me. She ought to retire before she dies in the middle of a lesson."

Kurt just rolled his eyes, starting to pull away, when Blaine stopped him. "Hey, hey, wait. So you're Kurt, huh? You know I've only been here a couple of hours, but I can tell just by taking a look at your striped-ass that you're 100% dick loving, am I right? Hell, just listening to your "The Sound of Music" esque name is making my gay-dar go off the charts."

Kurt cringed at Blaine's choice of crude words. "Congratulations, you know I'm gay. Now you can pummel me into the ground like all the other gorilla's here do."

"Woah," Blaine held his hands up in surrender. "Who said anything about pummeling your cute little ass? In fact, I play roughly in a different sort of way. Feel free to ask me how, and I'd be happy to show you."

Kurt couldn't believe what he was hearing, and his blood began to boil because of how incredibly annoying this boy was...and because of how undeniably hot he was.

"No thanks, Danny Zuko," Kurt replied, trying to make his voice sound bitchy. "I'm not into that kind of stuff."

Blaine leaned in very close to Kurt now, with Kurt's back pressed to the lockers and one of Blaine's hands placed on the locker's near Kurt's head, trapping him inside the tiny cage.

"Well, get used to me, because you see this locker, right here?" Blaine knocked on the metal door with his knuckles, the locker that was right next to Kurt's. "This one's mine for the entire year."

Kurt just huffed and pushed Blaine off of him, making Blaine chuckle.

"By the way," Blaine said, "You're pretty cute when you blush."

Blaine stuffed his fists into his pockets and marched away into the opposite direction, into the sea of students now flooding the hallway to go to lunch.

Kurt just stood there, and cursed himself when he pressed his palms to his cheeks and found that they were hot.

One thing was for sure... Kurt didn't know how he was going to spend a whole year next to the most irksome, irritating, and most dangerous person he could know. But Kurt did not want to like Blaine, not now or ever, and so far, in terms of liking the boy, this was a pretty good start.


	3. Bad

"_..._Let 'em know the wicked old witch is dead!"

Kurt and Rachel skipped around in circles on the McKinley auditorium stage, holding their last note together as it rang out and echoed throughout the spacious stage. The band stopped playing, Kurt and Rachel panting as they smiled and tried to catch their breath.

"That was amazing," Rachel said. She smoothed down her dress as she walked out of the auditorium with Kurt. "With our impeccable talent, there's no way we can lose at Nationals."

"Although I do celebrate with the Munchkins that the Wicked Witch is dead, I don't think this is the best idea for Nationals," Kurt admitted. "We're up against Vocal Adrenaline, Aural Intensity, and the Dalton Academy Warblers. I don't know if a cute little duet between a girl and her gay sidekick is going to cut it."

"The Warblers?" Rachel asked, shocked. "I know we've been up against Vocal Adrenaline before, and their strategy is weak: Use one person as the star during the entire show while everyone else dances in the background. Not a very strong strategy, even if they are great. But the Warblers... I hear they rehearse intensely throughout the night in their fancy private school dorms. They're a threat."

Kurt nodded. He hadn't actually seen the Warblers perform before, but he once heard that they hadn't lost a competition in nearly 30 years. Maybe they had never been up against Vocal Adrenaline before, but one thing was for sure...they were going to be tough to beat.

"We'll think of something else," Kurt offered. "Something longer, less childish...something where we can really show off our ranges."

"I'll get searching on some more Phantom songs, then," Rachel smiled determinedly. Kurt smiled back.

After they'd exchanged goodbye's and went their separate ways, Kurt headed to his locker to gather his belongings and head home. When he turned the corner, however, there was the same curly-headed, crude mouthed boy from this morning leaning against the locker next to his, tapping away on a scratched up cell phone that had to have been several years old.

Kurt stiffened at first, but then just sighed quietly, hoping he'd be able to get past this boy without practically getting jumped. Kurt couldn't help but wonder if this boy's intentions were to hurt him or not. He looked menacing enough to rip apart anyone with his teeth. So why was he being all flirty with Kurt during second period?

One word came to Kurt's head: Slut.

He never liked using the word "man-slut," because really, a leech is a leech, no matter the gender. You could make several stereotypes and criticisms about Blaine based on the way he talked, walked, and dressed. Kurt was taught by his father to never judge people, and Kurt took this to heart since he himself was judged all the time... but Blaine made that rule hard to follow.

Blaine's head snapped up at the sound of Kurt's boots clacking on the linoleum floor. Blaine looked pissed off at first, his eyes annoyed, but then they suddenly turned excited and cocky in the snap of fingers. Blaine shoved his phone into the pocket of his deteriorating jacket.

"If it isn't my new friend, Mr. Prude," Blaine smirked. Kurt didn't look at him as he began to turn the combination on his lock.

"Friends? Funny joke," Kurt snorted.

"You're right," Blaine said. "We're not friends. Would fuck buddies be a more appropriate title for you?"

Kurt cringed at Blaine's words. "How about 'people that can not speak to each other every day'?"

"Geez," said Blaine, reaching out to stroke Kurt's side. "There's really no need for being rude."

Kurt suddenly got angry. Who did this kid think he was? Did he think Kurt was just a piece of meat who would surrender to him?

"Look," Kurt growled. He turned to Blaine fully. "I don't know what kind of fantasy you're living in where you think it's normal to start feeling someone up when you've barely even known them a day. But stop treating me like I'm something pretty to look at and maybe you should just call up one of your 'friends'."

Blaine shrugged. "You are pretty to look at. I can't help myself. I'm already a dying man in a town so rotten that the whole fucking world might as well combust. What's the point in living if I'm just going to die an idiot without a little fun?"

Blaine leaned his back against the locker, and Kurt just turned back to his locker without saying anything else. He packed all of his things into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. "Whatever. I don't care what kind of sexual or metaphorical needs you have, you're a jerk who needs a haircut."

Suddenly, Blaine stepped in front of Kurt before he had any time to walk any farther. Kurt was suddenly face-to-face with burning eyes, one's that looked angry, curious, and focused all at the same time.

"You think I'm that bad of a guy? Just wait until you get out into the real world."

Kurt just stared at him.

"Whatever pretty dream or fantasy you have," Blaine continued, "Whatever it is you want to do, it's probably not going to happen. You're from Lima, for christ sakes. What can you do? You're just a kid from Ohio. That's it. So you just wait until you meet some of the monsters in the real world. They'll make me look like an angel."

Kurt was petrified by Blaine's words, and he just stared on straight ahead as he watched Blaine take out a cigarette from a carton in his pocket, stick it behind his ear, and walk away.

"See you tomorrow, angel face."

A lump formed in Kurt's throat. His heart swelled at what Blaine said, but instead of being upset about it, he became suddenly determined and angry. There were millions of people in this world, but only one of him. Blaine wasn't the first person who'd told him he couldn't do something. Maybe he'd just have to prove him wrong, even if he wanted nothing to do with him at all.

_AN: I am really excited, because the book tour dates were released for Chris's book signing, and even though I live in Canada, my dad said my family could take a road trip to Ohio to go to the signing! This is the most spectacular news I've gotten since H2$! It's a huge, if not certain, possibility that I could be meeting my hero this summer. I'm also really happy because John Green and Chris Colfer, my idols, have finally met at a book gathering and from what I could tell from videos, they got along swell._


	4. Useless Nights

_AN: I am so happy that Chris Colfer was in a vlogbrothers video! I just watched the video that was posted on their channel recently and I screamed when I saw Chris's name in the title. John Green and Chris are my two biggest inspirations. Also, this chapter was inspired by the song 'The A-Team' by Ed Sheeran. I saw the lyrics to this song written on the board one day in class and I thought it would be a perfect song for Blaine at this point. _

It was almost midnight by the time Blaine got home. He never carried around a house key with him, but it wasn't like it mattered. The back door to his small house in the ratty neighborhood was never unlocked, anyway. There was a wooden gate that separated Blaine's backyard from the front of the house, and usually that required a key as well, but instead, Blaine would just slip through the large crack dented into the door.

The back door opened with a creak, the screen door close to falling off if something wasn't done about it. It wasn't a beautiful house, that was true. By most standards, it was pretty squalid, but it managed to stand on it's structure.

Blaine unlaced his shoes, leaving them at the door. The house was mostly dark, but he knew for a fact that the living room light would still be on when he made his way up the stairs. He slung his jacket over his shoulder, his eyes blood-shot red. If one knew Blaine ANderson, it wasn't difficult to know where he was at night. Probably spending time with another one of his friends with benefits, smoking a joint and drinking shot after shot.

Lying on the sofa in the living room was a tall, lanky woman dressed in a bath robe. Her eyes appeared to be closed, her hair matted in a giant knot. Her arm dangled from her sofa, her hand clutched at a glass filled with dark liquid. Ice cubes clinked inside the glass, and when she heard Blaine coming up the stairs, the woman opened her tired eyes.

"Where were you?" asked the woman, her voice hoarse and clearly, she was drunk.

"Where do you think I was?" Blaine shot back.

The woman took a long swallow of her drink, consuming almost half of the drink in one gulp. She rolled her eyes at Blaine. Anyone who walked by could clearly see that this woman was addicted to drinking, but probably not a lot of people could identify that she was also Blaine's mother. Sure, they did the same old habits, but not much resembled in terms of looks. Blaine had the same messy curls from his mother, and the same eye color, but the similarities stopped there. This woman's face was sunken in, her skin quite pale, unlike her son's, and her hair starting to sprout streaks of grey.

"No need to get snappy," she retorted. "Don't think you should talk to your own mother like that. Remember who's paying rent?"

"Certainly not you, _Angela_," Blaine sighed. "Since when was the last time you went to work? Or would you rather suck on the tit of a whiskey producing machine and just wish for the damn bills to pay themselves?"

"Shut the hell up, you little brat," Angela said, her voice cracking from all the alcohol she'd had in the past couple of hours. "Get a job if you want money so badly. Get your ass to bed."

Blaine left the living room without saying anything else, without feeling angry or upset. It was regular that he and his mother fought, so often that it really had no effect on Blaine anymore. Angela wasn't a terrible person. It wasn't like she beat her son or locked him in his room. But even worse that that: she just didn't seem to care about anything. Like mother, like son. Not an expression heard of very often...but for Blaine and Angela, it was an exception.

Blaine's room was nothing like what people thought it would be. People usually imagined torn walls, broken glass bottles scattered across the carpet, hidden weapons under the bed, and dirty clothes thrown around. But in fact, it was quite the contrary. The floor of Blaine's room was clear enough to see the cream colored carpet. There wasn't much to his room: a bed, a desk with a few papers lying on it, a dresser containing all of his clothes, and a closet. Blaine's room was probably the cleanest, most normal part of his whole house. And since he had a window in his room, it didn't smell like ashes whenever he smoked inside the house.

Shedding his clothes, Blaine chucked his t-shirt and jeans into his hamper so he could wash them later on, along with his mother's clothes since she never seemed to do anything but sleep and drink. Blaine stepped into his bathroom, turning on the water to the hottest he could make it go. He hissed when the water spilled into his naked back, but relaxed as he got more used to it.

Blaine let the water wash over his hair, face, torso, arms and legs. The burning of the water would usually bother some people, but Blaine felt nothing, nothing at all.

It was at times like this, when Blaine was alone again, when he would start to sing. It was odd seeing someone like Blaine sing, especially after all the crude things that came out of his mouth, but Blaine had to admit: he liked it. He would sing anything, from old lullabies, to old music from the fifties, to current pop ballads. He had a beautiful voice, but of course, he'd never sing for anyone in hell. The vibrations from his voice reverberated off the shower walls.

After his shower, Blaine threw on a pair of sweatpants sloppily before climbing to sit on his window sill. He grabbed his cigarette carton and fished out a long, white, thin cylinder that he proceeded to light up. He cranked open his window and began to blow out smoke towards the slightly chilly October night. Blaine lived in a noisy neighborhood. The young couple next door always fought, the husband usually storming out of the house while the wife screamed after him. The crazy old woman across the street obsessively watered her garden, occasionally muttering things to herself while she did so. Blaine remembered one time when he was walking by her house, and he stopped to stare at the old woman, who was reciting some sort of poem with a deranged gleam in her eyes as she planted in a patch of lilies. She looked up at him, her face wild, as she screamed, "What are you looking at, faggot?" Needless to say, Blaine left immediately.

Blaine watched the people in his neighborhood often on nights like this. He observed how sad and small their lives were, with the teenage girls that rebelled against their parents and had sex in the back of abandoned buildings with men years older than them, couples who pretended like they were in love in front of their friends when really they said nothing to each other when the night came, and the drunks and the druggies who never went to school.

Blaine's eyes scanned across the black night (well, morning) sky as he flicked his cigarette out the window. The world was just so full of shit and lies. A perfect place for a guy like him. Guys like Blaine, who tried to cover up their old lives and start again so that no one would bother him. Just looking at one sad little neighborhood in Ohio proved how there was no such thing as love, or dreams, or hope. Whatever it was that they lied to you about in middle school. It wasn't real.

Life was a struggle. Blaine was pretty much the support system for his mother, only at eighteen. Paying for the house and still going to school at the same time seemed like it was too much for everything at this point. Blaine looked down at his arms, where there were two, tiny scars in the shape of horizontal lines. They were from his cutting days, but he stopped after he'd discovered the joys of drinking, sex, and smoking. It was a lot easier than cutting, and less painful, too.

Eventually, Blaine sighed and climbed into his bed, crossing his arms behind his head and closing his eyes, not sleeping. It would be a waste to pray for a better kind of life, since praying, Blaine believed, was for desperate assholes who were too lazy to fight for what they wanted. Then again, so was Blaine.

Sleep took Blaine by the hand later on, just as the sky turned a dark blue, preparing for the sun to rise in just a few hours. Another day Blaine didn't need to see, but another one he had to face.


	5. Late Slip

This was ridiculous.

Kurt had never been late to a class before. NEVER. His attendance record was perfect, he was always sitting right there in class with his back straight in his assigned seat. But today, on a particularly cold and rainy morning, his alarm clock decided to somehow mysteriously become unplugged from it's outlet, not notifying him that it was time to wake up. His Dad and Carole had already left for their jobs, and Finn was already dressed and about to leave the house (_"Why didn't you wake me?"_) And now, as Kurt ran through the hallways with his shoes soaked, he couldn't help but sarcastically think to himself at what a great day it was turning out to be.

Kurt tried his absolute best to slip into his fourth period class without being caught, however, that was physically impossible. His social science teacher, Mr. Johnston, looked up from his desk while several of the students started to bicker away at how "the homo was late for the first time."

"Kurt," Mr. Johnston said, "Do you have a late pass?"

"Uh...no," Kurt said. He'd completely forgotten how a tiny piece of paper could get him access into his own education.

"Please stop by the office to pick one up, then." And without another word, Mr. Johnston just went back to his work, the students continuing to stare at Kurt like he had three heads.

Kurt sighed, walking out of the room and to the head office, his boots making squeaky noises against the tiled floor. He went to the principals office instead, which was basically a giant, glass box that you could easily see inside.

Blaine Anderson was visible through the glass.

He was sitting on the leather sofa at the side of the room, his neck leaned back onto the sofa, looking relaxed and careless. Kurt also registered that principal Figgins was also in the room, appearing to be speaking sternly to Blaine. Obviously, Blaine payed no attention.

Kurt waited for Figgins to finish whatever he was saying before tapping on the glass door. Figgins looked up from where he was standing at his desk, but Blaine's eyes remained shut. He could have been sleeping if it wasn't for the smirks he kept giving throughout Figgins's lecture.

Figgins opened the door. "Mr. Hummel, what can I do for you?"

"I was late to fourth period," Kurt explained. "I'm in need of a late pass."

"Certainly," Figgins said. "Let me go fetch one from the other room. You're welcome to take a seat inside if you like."

Figgins was gone, and Kurt was standing in-between the threshold, alone with Blaine Anderson once again.

"So what did you get in trouble for, angel face?" Blaine asked casually without opening his eyes. Kurt eyed his nose and sculpted jawline, pointed towards the ceiling.

"Trouble is not the word," Kurt huffed. "I doubt being late to a class isn't even remotely as bad to what you're probably here for."

"All I did was ditch class," Blaine sighed, rolling his head so that it was facing Kurt. He opened his eyes this time, and to Kurt's surprise, they seemed rather bright than usual. Blaine winked at him and added, "Y'know, for the hundredth time."

Kurt rolled his eyes. Blaine patted his hand on the space next to him on the sofa. "Why don't you come sit?" However it didn't sound friendly. Instead, it sounded seductive and beckoning.

"No thanks."

"It'll be a while until Figgins comes back. From what I can tell, he doesn't know this office at all, let alone the school." Blaine closed his eyes again and stuck his nose up towards the ceiling, looking relaxed. "If he even payed half of his attention to what goes on at this school, maybe he'd notice by now that Fabray's a hot mess who needs a mental clinic, Shuester is totally a pedophile, and you get your ass beat every day right before period one by the neanderthals on the football team."

Kurt swallowed, his eyes quickly darting to anywhere else but Blaine. It was clear that Kurt was now uncomfortable, and the sudden silence plus the aura of Kurt's discombobulation could be felt by Blaine. Blaine felt a tiny bit guilty for making Kurt feel ashamed, but it faded rapidly. After all, it wasn't like_ he_ was the one who was bullying Kurt.

"You notice a lot of things," Kurt said awkwardly.

"Sure do. I also notice that I think you're too hot to be pushed around like that."

Kurt grimaced. "Why don't you keep your revelations to yourself, then?"

"That's just the way I talk, angel face," Blaine said, scratching the back of his neck. "I just do things like that."

A few minutes of silence past, and Kurt was getting kind of bored from just standing in the door way, so he set his bag down and sat on the wooden chair opposite to Blaine. He was about to take out his english novel when Blaine spoke up.

"You really think I'm that bad of a guy?"

Kurt looked up, blinking.

"Excuse me?"

"I said," Blaine repeated, looking right into Kurt's eyes now. "You really think I'm that bad of a guy?"

Kurt wanted to say something that would just make Blaine shut up, but for some reason, what came out of his mouth just had to be said.

"I think you're immature, annoying, smug and crude," Kurt wrinkled his nose. "But I don't know you. So it would be hard to tell if you were a bad person or not."

It was true. Blaine had all of those qualities, but since Kurt didn't exactly know Blaine that well besides the fact that he smelt deliciously of cologne mixed with cigarettes, he often came to class late, he wore a lot of black, and he enjoyed picking fights with the members of the sports teams in the hallways. But in terms of Blaine's background and what he liked to do, Kurt knew none of that.

Blaine sighed loudly, turning his head back towards the ceiling with his left ankle crossing over his right knee, his arms stretched out on the couch, a lazy, cocky pose. Kurt was now looking at Blaine's adam's apple, surrounded by a light stubble on his tanned skin. Kurt flushed.

"I'm nothing compared to the scum stuck to the floors of this town," Blaine said calmly. "Well, actually, I am, but I'm not as bad. People just think I'm a serial killer or whatever when they first see me. But I'm not. I just...fuck up a lot."

There was no emotion in Blaine's voice. Monotone, just like a robot. Even so, Kurt couldn't help feeling a tiny bit sad for Blaine. If what he was saying was true, then it just made Blaine seem all the more human to Kurt. Everyone messed up sometimes, but it doesn't necessarily make them bad people. No man could go a lifetime without creating a flaw or two.

But it still didn't help with the fact that Blaine was as irksome as ever.

_Insanely gorgeous,_ Kurt thought,_ but irksome._

Kurt really had no idea what to say after that. He was half-expecting some cheesy piano music to start playing in the background after Blaine's attempted-earnest speech (which wasn't a bad attempt, considering Blaine wasn't the best with words.) It was then that Kurt realized that Blaine wasn't stupid - in fact, he was probably quite smart. Even though he skipped and was usually late to class, Blaine had his work done all the time. It was an odd mix, seeing such a ruthless figure not dropping out of high school by now.

Kurt continued to remain silent, so instead, he (pretended) to go back to reading his english novel. Kurt was secretly watching Blaine with tiny peeks. He watched the muscles in his neck tighten and contract as he bobbed his head about, watched his eyelashes flutter open and closed towards the ceiling, watched how his lips were chapped from how often he bit and licked them.

The door opened after a moment, principal Figgins coming back into the room. He held a folded sheet of pink paper in his hands, holding it out towards Kurt.

"I apologize for the delay, Mr. Hummel," Figgins said in his thick accent. "We had an issue in the copy machine room and ink splattered all over the floor. We had to print more copies of the late slips, as the others were soaked in ink."

"Interesting story," Blaine chuckled sarcastically, and both Figgins and Kurt looked at Blaine. Figgins did not looked too pleased, but Kurt, however, seemed as if he was trying to hold his own laughter in.

Kurt thanked the principal before grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder, ready to leave. Just as Kurt exited the room, he caught Blaine's reflection in the glass door staring back at him. A wink was the last thing he saw before he made his way to class.


	6. Pigheaded

Over the next few weeks, Kurt began to worry for the glee club. They weren't even close to ready for their competition, and it would be approaching soon in the next couple of weeks. It was small things that made their numbers imperfect, such as mistakes in the choreography and Santana always rolling her eyes about how Rachel always got the spot light. But it couldn't be helped...the glee club constantly fought and made errors.

It was obvious that Kurt was stressed, and right now, he needed all the peace and quiet he could get.

The constant locker slams and slushies to the face, provided by the friendly neighborhood bullies, just added to Kurt's frustration. But one thing that seemed to have laid off of him for a while way Blaine.

Well, maybe that was a bit of an overstatement. Blaine still carried that cocky smirk whenever Kurt was near him, and he still attempted to crack dirty jokes about how tight Kurt's pants were, and how tighter they seemed to get when Blaine walked into the room, blah blah blah. But it was true that Blaine wasn't constantly bugging Kurt about nonsense, unlike all the other people in his life. If Kurt were to ignore the sound of Blaine's voice for a while, then Blaine would eventually just give up and turn away.

For some reason, however, Kurt felt like he was getting used to Blaine by now. It had only been about three weeks since Kurt had actually met Blaine, and he still really didn't know that much about the leather-clad boy. Kurt had been forced to work on a few in-class assignments with Blaine in History, since the teachers were lazy and implied the "work with your elbow partner" rule. Kurt was surprised to see that Blaine was actually a pretty good worker, and was focused enough to actually pay attention to what he was doing.

But Blaine could have a moody side, too. Sometimes, he could come into class, plopping down in the seat next to Kurt with a smile on his face and a whole load of new, lewd pick-up lines to test out on Kurt. Other times, Blaine would come to class with his face plain, silently taking his seat and not even glancing once at Kurt. Blaine gave off a strange aura to Kurt. It made Kurt want to pull into Blaine and become apart of the mystery, but it also told him to stay away from the threat.

One morning, during second period, Blaine was late to class (as usual), but since Ms. Bernard wasn't in the room at the time, she couldn't nag to him about getting a late pass at the moment. Blaine slid into the empty seat at Kurt's table, always the two boys being separated by one empty chair.

Kurt snuck a glance at Blaine. He noticed that Blaine was breathing heavily, trying to take slower breathes so that he wasn't panting out loud in the middle of class. Blaine's hair also seemed to be even more messier than normal, but then Kurt noticed that there was a large cut on Blaine's forearm, and that's when he spoke up.

"What happened to your arm?" asked Kurt quietly so that no one else could hear. But nobody was even paying attention - Rachel was busy writing away in her notebook and everyone else in the class went back to talking to each other.

Blaine raised his eyebrow at Kurt, like he couldn't believe he was talking to him, and said nothing as he turned back to face the blackboard.

Kurt frowned. "So the one time that I actually feel like talking to you, you ignore me?"

"If this conversation ends with you in my bed," Blaine snorted, "Then yeah, I'll talk to you. If it doesn't, then just go back to your work like a good boy, angel face."

Kurt ignored the rudeness in Blaine's voice. "What happened to your arm?"

"Nosy, much?" Blaine hissed. But Kurt felt even more annoyed than Blaine right now.

"I'm not being nosy," Kurt said simply. "I just want to know what happened to your arm. You always seem to be prying into my business, so why does it suddenly become a crime when I asked one simple question?"

"One simple question with a complicated answer," Blaine snapped. "Leave it, alright Hummel?"

"No."

Blaine's eyes were burning now. He whipped his head to the side and faced Kurt with a calm, yet clearly angry expression.

But Kurt was not afraid. Maybe a bit nervous, but not scared, not like how he was with Karofsky or the bullies at school.

"What did you say to me?" Blaine said.

"I said no," Kurt repeated. "I'd like to know what happened, please."

Blaine scrutinized Kurt's determined face for a few more moments, his eyes still lit with rage, before speaking carefully.

"If you hate me so much, why do you want to even know what happened?"

"I never said I hated you, remember?" Kurt said. "I just said I think you're an annoying prick who always seems to want to get into _my _business, and then gets angry when I try to do the same."

"You never said you didn't like it," Blaine's voice switched from fuming to flirtatious in a matter of seconds. Kurt was annoyed once more.

"You know what? Fine. Never mind, I'm sorry I asked. I'll just pretend it never happened." Kurt looked back down at his work sheet. "Sorry. I didn't mean to hijack into your private life or whatever."

It went quiet between them for a second, the faint mumble of chattering students behind them. Blaine eyed Kurt, watching his hand scratch words over his page and how his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Fight," Blaine said suddenly. Kurt looked up.

"Hmm?"

"You asked me what happened. I'm telling you. I got into a fight."

Kurt's eyes grew wide, expanding his bright blue-green irises. Blaine stared into them, wishing that those beautiful eyes could have been looking up at him from a horizontal position.

"Why? Are you alright?" Kurt asked with some concern in his voice, not entirely sure why.

"Obviously," Blaine muttered. "It was just in my neighborhood. Some drunken asshole was giving me a hard time. That's all there really is to know."

Kurt gaped at him. "And you got away with it?"

Blaine shrugged. "Well, he was as high as a fucking kite, so I doubt he's even going to remember what happened."

Kurt looked surprised. Of course, Kurt knew that Blaine did all of the cliche bad-boy acts: smoked, drank, probably lost his virginity when he was fourteen, sprayed graffiti on walls, and got into fights. But the wound on his arm (that thankfully wasn't bleeding, it was just an angry red color that would take some time to disappear) showed that Blaine was merciless and showed no fear.

If that was true, then why did Blaine seem so secretive about his private life with Kurt?

As if Blaine was reading Kurt's mind the whole time, Blaine said, "I don't have to share all my secrets with you, y'know. Just because I want in to your pants doesn't mean I'm going to become your soul mate or whatever."

Kurt recoiled, offended. "I never said I even _wanted _to get with you, anyway. I'm not a one night stand."

"Which was why I offered the term 'fuck buddies,' my dear," Blaine flashed a wide, white smile. "That way, it wouldn't have to be a one night stand. It could be multiple nights of fun beneath the shee-"

"I get it!" Kurt interrupted, flushing at Blaine's definition. "I'm not into that either."

"Oh," Blaine sighed. "You're into all that romance stuff, aren't you?"

Kurt said nothing, but the redness in his cheeks gave away that Kurt was the most innocent, romance-seeking boy Blaine had ever met. Blaine chuckled. Giving Kurt a pat on the arm.

"The most virgin of virgins," Blaine winked at Kurt. "Seriously, I think you're passing up a great offer. I could teach you a thing or two."

Kurt rolled his eyes and crinkled his nose in disgust. "No. Alright?"

"But it's so obvious that we want each other," Blaine blurted out, and Kurt nearly chocked on the air.

"Excuse _me?"_

"I see you staring at me, babe," Blaine turned his entire body towards Kurt's now, his eyes only focused on Kurt's and his voice dropping down low to a whisper. "You're hopeless. You think I don't notice your cute little angel face of yours catching secret looks at me when I walk by? You think I don't see you staring me up and down? I've seen it a million times on a million people, Hummel. Trust me, I know, and I feel the exact same."

Blaine's voice went from bragging to filled with lust, a voice Kurt had never heard before. There was no doubt that Burt would immediately hate this guy.

"I admit that you're-" Kurt began.

"Hot? Shamelessly sexy? Wet-dream material?"

Kurt flinched. "I was going to say attractive. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you eat me alive like I'm some piece of meat. I'm so much more than that. More than a pig like you."

Kurt's furious words ended the exact same time that the bell rang, and as fast as he could, Kurt was wrathfully picking up his bag and marching out the door faster than anyone else.

Blaine watched him go, his facial expressions not even fazed by what Kurt just called him. He'd been called much worse in the past, and some geeky virgin with Lady Gaga outfits shouting harmless insults at him wasn't going to make him start crying. Blaine knew that Kurt had feelings, knew he wasn't just a slab of meat, but it didn't stop him from wanting to explore the vastness of Kurt's pale skin stretched out over bedsheets. In fact, Kurt pig-headedness and sharp wit just made Blaine all the more attracted to him.

Blaine smiled to himself, thinking that Kurt's words were going to abruptly stop him from trying to hit on him. Instead, the need increased.


	7. Heated

Once Kurt was out the door from his History class, he could hear the light tapping of ballet flat shoes behind him, meaning that only Rachel could have been following him. He ignored her as he made his way to his locker, gathering his things for lunch. Rachel found him and started to speak.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked, her little hand on Kurt's arm. "You shot up out of your seat faster than a bullet."

"_What's wrong_ is that I was placed next to the biggest idiot in our century," Kurt grumbled, hastily shoving books inside his locker.

Just then, Mercedes and Tina came up behind the two and smiled brightly. "Hey guys," Tina said, "How were your mornings?"

Rachel spoke before Kurt could reply. "Kurt's been having a rough morning. The new kid is being irritating and - and what exactly has he been doing, Kurt?"

"If he's busting on your ass, I'll deal with him," Mercedes cocked an eyebrow, a hand on her hip. "Or, I can ask Sam and Puck to deal with him."

"It's not like that," Kurt muttered. "He just doesn't know how to take no for an answer. He is the biggest sex-leech I have ever met and he thinks he can just walk up to anyone he wants and expects them to fall in love with him."

"Is this _Blaine _we're talking about?" Tina questioned. "The leather-jacket wearing, smokes-all-the-time Blaine Anderson?"

"Yup," Kurt replied.

"He's...giving you sex offers," Rachel asked, but it came out more as a statement from her shocked expression.

"Well..." Kurt thought. "I guess. It's not like he's paying me or anything, but he just wants to get off and I'd never do that despite how cute he is."

The three girls looked at Kurt, and Kurt flushed.

"Well - you know, he's cute and all, but there's no way I would-"

"Cute? Try _gorgeous!"_ Tina sighed, and Rachel and Mercedes's attention was now focused on Tina, their expressions incredulous.

"Girl," Mercedes shook her head.

"What?" Tina asked, confused.

"Good for you for showing him, Kurt," Rachel said. "People like him need rejection now and then. If they get told yes too often, they abuse it."

"It's not like I was _going_ to say yes," Kurt hissed, annoyed. "What do you think I am, a prostitute?"

"Not at all, honey," Mercedes joined. "And we weren't doubting you. But boys like him, no matter how fine their white asses can be, are great at manipulating people. Even the smartest of people, like you."

"I'll keep my distance, then," Kurt rolled his eyes at the image of Blaine's face in his head.

An image that never seemed to stop appearing in his head.

The rest of the day had gone pretty normal for Kurt. But for some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about the damn boy. There was just something so mysterious about him, something Kurt couldn't put his finger on. But mostly, Kurt couldn't help but think how amazingly gorgeous his features were. The whole enigma personality completely added to that, and-

Stop. What was he doing? Kurt didn't like Blaine. Not like that, or any other way. He couldn't be thinking about Blaine like this. It completely went against everything he'd said to his friends. Blaine was a threat. He was bold, dangerous, careless, menacing. Anything he did would probably end up damaging something else. Kurt didn't want to be that damaged thing.

Still...there was no doubting that Blaine was truly something amazing to look at. Kurt hated that he was taking Blaine for granted like that, but his regret faded when he remembered that Blaine probably did the same.

And then Kurt blushed so brightly that he thought his face would have burned off.

Just thinking about Blaine lying in his room, doing _those kinds of things_ while thinking about Kurt. The image became so clear in his mind: Blaine on top of his covers, dressed in his night wear, slipping a palm underneath the fabric of his underwear to firmly grasp his-

Kurt suddenly jumped up in his seat and slammed his textbook shut, as if the images from his mind were inside the book somehow. Two girls sitting in front of him turned their heads to see what the loud noise was, and Kurt just gave them a glare as cold as ice.

While recovering from the thoughts that hijacked his mind earlier, Kurt made his way to the choir room. School had ended, and now it was time to rehearse yet again for sectionals with the glee club.

Rehearsal went by smoothly - well, with a few rough patches they would have to take up. Kurt ended up getting accidentally shoved a few times by Artie's wheelchair as they followed Mr. Schue's dance moves, causing Artie to push his glasses up his nose and apologize several times. For sectionals, they had decided on a Michael Jackson medley. His songs were difficult to sing, let alone his dancing style, but he was a well respected artist with crowd pleasing music. Kurt thought that he would be able to hit some really high notes this year, considering the artist they'd be singing, but no. Kurt wasn't even able to squeeze in a _"hee-hee"_. Once again, Kurt felt neglected in his own environment.

When practice was over, everyone gathered their bags and headed outside, waving goodbye to each other as they went their separate ways. Kurt was almost making his way out the front door when he noticed an absence in his pocket. He reached down into the pocket of his jeans and found no cell phone.

"Crap," Kurt muttered to himself. He figured he left his phone in his locker, which was the last place he'd seen it. Kurt walked quickly through the hallways, his shoes making odd squeaking noises on the floor. He was glad he was by himself so that no one needed to hear the embarrassing noises his shoes made as he walked to his locker.

Or, so he thought he was alone.

Kurt had just finished doing his locker combination when a loud, gruff voice came from behind him.

"Hey, faggot."

Kurt sucked in a silent breath, closing his eyes briefly. Then, he mustered up all his courage and opened his eyes, still facing the locker and not at them as he spoke.

"What are you daft gorilla's doing here?" Kurt asked, taking his time to look for his phone so that he didn't have to turn around and face his tormenters.

"We thought we'd stop by and say hello to our favorite punching bag," came another voice, but Kurt could already sense that there were two of them there. He pictured them standing there with their ugly, cheap letterman jackets, maybe holding a couple of slushies.

"And who would that be? Each other?" Kurt scoffed. He could feel the annoyance heating up in the bullies behind him, even without looking at them.

"You best be watching your mouth around us, Hummel," one of them said. Kurt guessed that it was Azimo, recognizing his voice pretty quickly. The other voice, however, he did not know. But it was probably some equally hulking guy with a bad haircut and a sweaty neck.

"Yeah," the other voice said. "We could hear your terrible glee club from all the way down the hall. It's making our ears bleed, so keep it down next time, will ya?"

Kurt rolled his eyes, feeling his cheeks get hot with anger. He turned around to face the bullies now, his bravery kicking it. He'd been right about who was speaking - Azimo and another faceless bully.

"For your information," Kurt said, "We've won plenty of competitions before, and Figgins seems to be putting more money towards us than that football team of yours. How many games have you guys won these past three years? Oh yeah, only one. And if I do recall, the game you managed to win was the night that you had _me_ on the team."

"It was also the night we looked like assholes, dancing in front of the whole school," Azimo huffed, his fist clenching.

"You should be thankful you even had me to put a little humanity into your joke of a team. Without me and Mr. Schuester to coach you all, you probably would have lost yet another game."

The faceless bully gave Kurt a little shove. Not a hard one, but it was enough to send Kurt stumbling back about two steps. "Don't be a smart ass, Hummel," he said. "Or else-"

"Or else what?" Kurt pushed. "You guys are gonna beat me up? Send a slushy flying at my face? Go ahead, its not like it hasn't happened before. You should really get some more methods, because your insults are weak, your actions are harmless and your fashion is just embarrassing to the point where wearing trash bags would make you look a tad better."

Once again, Kurt got another shove, this time from Azimo.

"Don't touch me," Kurt growled, and they did it again, the push being harder this time.

"I said don't touch me!" Kurt yelled now, and just as the jocks raised their hands to do something much worse, a fourth voice sounded and joined the conversation.

"Hey!"

Kurt would know that voice anywhere, even without looking at who it belonged to.

"Lay off the kid, Azimo. Or do I need to show you how to keep your damn ugly fists to yourself?" Blaine looked relaxed and at ease, one hand in his pocket and the other resting limply at his side. His eyes looked calm, his shoulders sagging. However, there was a look in his eyes that just proved to show that something was about to go down.

"Shut the hell up, Anderson," Azimo yelled back at Blaine, who was walking closer and closer towards the commotion.

_Please leave,_ Kurt pleaded in his mind. _You're going to make things worse._ _They'll want to kill me by tomorrow morning if you defend me._

_Wait, why is Blaine defending me?_

"Be a nice boy and put those fists away," Blaine said in a mocking tone. "You wouldn't wanna give Hummel here an STD from all the times you've touched your own dick, since no one is doing it for you."

Azimo snorted, along with the faceless jock. "Yeah, cause you'd probably want to do it yourself, am I right, homo?"

"Why don't you both run along now and play with your toys, alright? Leave Hummel to me."

Blaine gave a smile, and it almost made Kurt's heart stop. The smile Blaine had was almost psychotic and ill, like Blaine could easily hurt someone with the flick of his wrist and feel goof about doing it. Kurt wasn't scared of Blaine, but...he was scared of this face. This face was morbid, brutal, and a little sadistic looking.

"So what? So you can make out with him?" said the faceless jock, and Azimo laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Just to make Blaine's blood boil, Azimo reached out once more to shove Kurt again, sending his elbow into the lockers next to him. Kurt's elbow collided with the metal door, making a_ thumping_ sound.

Just like that, Blaine's fist connected with Azimo's eye so quickly that nobody even had enough time to blink or breathe before it happened. And it wasn't a light smack of a punch, either. A loud _smack_ echoed throughout the halls, and Kurt stood with his eyes wide. Kurt wished he could just leave, or become apart of the lockers behind him, but his body was frozen to the floor. And there was no way he could leave Blaine behind now.

Azimo looked at Blaine with one eye for a split second before pouncing, but the faceless jock managed to leap between them, keeping them apart.

"Hey," Azimo spat, "Let me at this homo. Let me teach him a lesson!"

"Could you sound any gayer?" asked Blaine in a fake-little girl voice, which only made Azimo angrier.

"Dude, stop, you can't," the faceless jock said. "Remember what Coach Beiste said? If we violate that stupid rule she made with Shuester about beating up the glee club, then she'll kick us off the team."

"We do it in school anyway! All the time!" Azimo was pissed.

"Yeah, but that's different than after school hours," said the faceless jock. "During school, that's when teachers can stop us or whatever. You beat them up outside of school on our own time and we're dead."

"Wow, kid's actually smart enough to figure something out!" Blaine said, pretending to sound impressed as gave a pitiful round of applause.

Azimo gave Blaine a hot death glare, one that made Kurt look down at the floor. But Blaine held his gaze, staring back with intensity. A staring contest for the vicious.

"I'll get you later," Azimo threatened. "You're dead, Anderson. I'll murder you and his-" Azimo thrust a finger at Kurt "-asses later. When nobody else is around."

"You have fun doing that, friends!" Blaine waved as the jocks made their way down the hallway. Blaine just stared at them until they were out of sight, his back turned to Kurt. Kurt watched the fearless boy's leather-clad back. Blaine said nothing, just had his face staring off into the the hallway, ignoring Kurt's existence.

"Tha-" Kurt tried, but his voice was hoarse, so he cleared it and tried it again. "Um, thank you. You know, for that, I really appr-"

Blaine suddenly spun around faster than when he had hit Azimo in the eye and walked over to where Kurt was standing against the lockers. Blaine's expression went from being determined to libidinous in seconds. Not only that, but...Kurt detected a tiny bit of concern in there, too, which surprised him.

What surprised him even more was when Blaine inched so close to Kurt that he could feel their chests pressed together. Kurt's eyes were as wide as a deer's caught in headlights, his breath hitching when Blaine placed his hands on either side of Kurt's head on the lockers, pressing his stomach into Kurt's and his back into the metal doors.

Kurt was sure Blaine could feel his heart beating.

Kurt looked up and was suddenly face-to-face with gorgeous, intimidating hazel eyes framed with dark, thick lashes. Kurt could spot every tiny curl, every contour on Blaine's face. He had a high definition view of the little stubble hairs on Blaine's chin, the slight dark circles underneath his eyes from lack of sleep, and he could smell the waft of smoke and cologne that he gave off. Kurt suddenly found Blaine about ten times more attractive than before.

Blaine said nothing. Kurt said nothing. They were both mute and stared at each other for what felt like hours. Kurt could almost feel his knees wobbling uneasily like noodles, and his eyes darted down to look at somewhere, anywhere, but Blaine's eyes. He settled on looking at the collar of Blaine's jacket instead. Without warning, Blaine's hand moved up to softly cup Kurt's chin and tilt it towards Blaine's face. Blaine smiled, a genuine smile, not an annoying smirk, when he could feel Kurt's blush beneath his fingers. While Blaine was being gentle, his grasp was still firm, being certain that Kurt was now looking at him and not anywhere else. Just what he wanted.

"You okay?" Blaine asked. Kurt gaped, his mouth opening and closing like he was going to say something before he finally nodded, unable to use coherent words. Blaine thought he could get lost in those sea foam eyes, twinkling like the stars above. Blaine's voice was a gentle susurrus echoing in the shell of Kurt's ear, which was a sound Kurt never got to hear often. Or at least, coming from Blaine.

"Good," Blaine replied, his hand moving down Kurt's face to the side of his neck. He traced Kurt's thin collarbone, enjoying the smooth, well-cared-for skin. Kurt got a tingling sensation down his neck, making him shiver, yet feel warm at the same time.

"Thanks," Kurt managed to choke out, his face on fire. Blaine smiled once more, and Kurt decided that he liked Blaine's real smile rather than his cocky one, the one he used when trying to impress someone. "But I could have handled myself just fine."

"Mmhmm," Blaine distractedly answered after a while of stroking his fingers up and down Kurt's neck, amused when Kurt shuddered. "I know you could've. But you would have been turned into a pancake by them before making it out alive."

After a while, Blaine placed his hand back onto the locker behind Kurt's head, trapping Kurt inside the imaginary cage. Not like Kurt would move, anyway. He was too shocked by what was going on. How could he have gone from despising Blaine's guts to mesmerized by him in such a short amount of time?

Kurt stared at Blaine, and very slowly, Blaine lay his forehead right on top of Kurt's, squishing parts of their hair together. Kurt was pretty sure he couldn't breathe now.

"Are you scared of me, Kurt?" Blaine asked, his voice low and quiet. Kurt blinked. This was also the first time that Blaine had called Kurt by his real name, and not "Hummel" or "Angel Face."

"What?" said Kurt, and Blaine moved in so close that the only thing Kurt could see were two giant eyes starring right into him. Exposing him, turning him vulnerable.

"I said," Blaine was whispering now, "Are you scared of me?"

Kurt swallowed slowly, breathing softly before saying, "No."

Blaine stared at Kurt for a few more long seconds before he smirked and moved in to press his lips against Kurt's. Kurt gasped lightly, his eyebrows shooting up, but his eyelashes automatically closing.

This was the most thrilling sensation he'd ever felt. Blaine's mouth was so warm and skilled, and he felt those pair of lips sucking on his own with a passionate demeanor. Kurt let out a shaky sigh from his nose, his heart thundering in his chest. His _first real kiss_ was with a dangerous, untamable person, and he loved every moment of it.

Kurt knew he shouldn't be doing this. He should be pushing Blaine off of him and walking in the opposite direction by now, but Kurt soon felt himself kissing back with enthusiasm. If this was how good a kiss felt with Blaine...Kurt couldn't even imagine what other things would be like with him.

It was like his mouth was on fire, and heat coursed through Kurt's veins teasingly. Kurt let out a small squeak when he felt a tongue probe into his mouth, licking at his own tongue very gently. Blaine's hand came up to firmly grasp Kurt's hip, pulling it closer to his body as their lips moved in hard, languid circles. It was true that Kurt was no expert when it came to this sort of stuff, and his knowledge was limited. But judging by the sound of Blaine's irregular breathing...he wasn't doing so bad.

Just as Kurt was getting into the kiss, starting to raise his arms so they could wrap around Blaine's neck, Blaine pulled away abruptly, their kiss making a small squishing noise. Kurt looked puzzled, his cheeks pink and his eyelashes fluttering open. Kurt quickly put his arms at his side once more before they got a chance to touch Blaine.

"Yeah," Blaine spoke, his voice returning back to normal. "That's what I thought."

Blaine lifted himself off the lockers, stuffed his fists into his jacket and walked away without looking back at Kurt. Kurt stood, astonished again, his mouth wide open and his brain scattering his thoughts as he tried to grasp what just happened. Blaine's footsteps eventually faded out into a rubato rhythm until it was completely gone, leaving Kurt with a warm buzz still tingling on his lips and a very, _very _confused head.

_AN: I was just about to upload this when I realized that as I was writing this that this scene parallels to the part in one of my older fics, 500 Days of Kurt, when they were standing outside of Blaine's bedroom and the boys started kissing and after, Kurt just left. I swear, its like the ideas just come up randomly, I don't even know sometimes that I'm referencing myself..._


	8. Circumstances

_AN: Holy crap. I just watched Atonement for the first time. I kept seeing gif sets and stuff for it on tumblr, and I thought it looked good so I decided to watch it. It was really spectacular, and I cried a lot towards the end. I heard that it's a novel, and I'd really like to read it. If any of you lovelies haven't seen Atonement yet, go watch it! I highly recommend it to all you romance/mystery/war loving fanatics. Also, I just started to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, and let me tell you...it's some spooky stuff so far, but it's really amazing!_

Kurt was up all night with what happened only a couple of hours ago.

He sat in front of his vanity, staring at his own reflection in the mirror. even though he'd already done his nightly moisturizing routine, he decided that doing it once more was the only thing that would prevent him from thinking about that kiss. He wouldn't have been surprised if he woke up with his skin radiating more than usual the next day. But of course, even ad he rubbed a pale cream into his even paler skin, he couldn't keep the memory of Blaine's lips on him away for long.

Kurt shut his eyes, slamming down a little blue jar on his vanity and sighing. He placed his elbows on the table, his face in his hands as he bounced his knee up and down. It was a position of utter concentration and frustration. Kurt felt so stressed, more stressed than he had ever felt. He should have known this was going to happen. Kissing Blaine, let alone being rescued from blood-ravenous miscreants, was already too much of a thrill. But Kurt knew better, Blaine was not a knight in shining armor and he was not a Prince Charming who specialized in romance.

There was a light tap on Kurt's door. "Kiddo? You awake?"

It was Burt. Quickly, Kurt wiped a few stray tears away from the corners of his eyes and looked straight into his mirror. Luckily, there were no red marks underneath his eyes. "Yeah, Dad. Come in."

The door opened, and in walked Burt. "You alright in here? It's almost past midnight."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kurt lied. "I just can't sleep."

Burt took a seat on the end of Kurt's bed, looking at his son's face through the tilted mirror on his vanity. "Are you sure, buddy? You seemed really quiet at dinner. No commentary on the latest Vogue magazine, no death glares at Finn for eating like a wolf, nothing. You seemed kinda...down."

Kurt gave a small smile. "I'm okay. Just a hormonal thing, you know? Testosterone and all that. Puberty."

"You sound like you have a period or something," Burt chuckled, but Kurt said nothing.

"Hey," Burt said softly, "Anything you need to get off your shoulders? I know you, Kurt. Something's bugging you."

Kurt sighed and surrendered. He knew his advice giving guru of a father could get the truth out of him some time. "It's...about boys. Well, a boy, specifically."

"Tell me about this boy," Burt said. "Do I know him?"

"No. He's new. He's really...eccentric, I'd say, at school. Not really like the rest. And he's been confusing the hell out of me lately."

"Do you like this guy?" asked Burt, which received an eye-roll from Kurt.

"I don't know, Dad, that's why I'm confused. Sometimes I feel like ripping his hair out, and other times, I don't know...I guess he's not so bad."

"Hmm," Burt pondered. "Are you friends with him?"

"Um, no," Kurt admitted.

"Well, then I'd say that's the first step in order to loosen this kid up. Obviously, you're confused out of your mind about what to feel for this kid. Get to know him a little more personally, and maybe you can pick up things from there."

"But he's as stubborn as a mule," Kurt said. "Like me."

Burt smiled. "Maybe you guys aren't such a bad team after all."

"Seriously," Kurt huffed. "It's not even funny, Dad. He doesn't even really talk to me that much and when he does, it's about...nothing."

Kurt was not about to tell his father about all the sex offers, crude comments and most recently, a kiss he'd received from Blaine. It would most likely either cause Burt to launch into another heart attack, or to get out his shot gun from the garage and find out where Blaine lived. And besides...Kurt had the sex talk with his dad already, and it ended in hours of reading graphic pamphlets that ended up shoved away in the back of Kurt's underwear drawer.

"Maybe you just need a way to speak to him," Burt thought aloud. "Think about it. What's an interest he has that maybe you can relate to?"

_Sex, smoking, more sex, and drinking? I don't think so_, Kurt thought to himself. "Um...uh, he's...a good worker in class, I guess? Like I said, I know nothing about him so far. But I do know that he focusses pretty well when we're doing work."

"There you go. Talk to him while you're doing an assignment or something. It's not like he can walk away from you then." Burt smiled. "Kiddo, the one thing you gotta remember is to be yourself. I know every kid hears that from his dad but trust me. It's the only way he's gonna really pay attention to what you're saying. Not how you dress or how you look, but what you want to learn from him."

Kurt smiled gently. _My Dad, therapist extraordinaire._

"Thanks, Dad," Kurt told him through the mirror. "It helps a lot to just talk about it. I guess I just needed an ear for a while."

"Well, you can always use mine," Burt smiled. He stood up from Kurt's bed and walked to the door. "Get some sleep, alright? Before all that product goes to your head."

"Goodnight, Dad."

After Burt was gone, Kurt flicked off his lamp and climbed into bed, burying himself into his thick blankets. As Kurt lay awake and gazed at the ceiling, he wondered one thing: How was he going to conquer such an impossible task as being Blaine Anderson's friend?

**MEANWHILE**

Blaine was thinking about maybe taking some of his mother's sleeping pills to try and lull him into a dreamless slumber, but that would mean having to go downstairs in order to get the pills, meaning he would pass his mother lying on the couch while she watched television shows in the dark. Blaine decided against the idea.

He couldn't sleep. And it wasn't just because his mother was blasting the TV too loud while she nursed a bottle of gin in her arms, but because of earlier.

If one thing was absolutely, positively, one hundred percent sure, it was that Blaine was no stranger when it came to the common kiss. He'd kissed lots of people - boys older than him, boys younger than him, girls older than him, girls younger than him. He'd had different types of kisses in different types of places, sometimes one in one week, or a dozen a day. Today, he thought that when he shared a kiss with Kurt, it would be no different like the others, but he was wrong.

Blaine couldn't stop replaying the kiss over and over in his mind. Its like his head was a broken record that couldn't be fixed. It disgruntled him and made him slightly curious as to why this kiss was by far better than the others. Most kissed he participated in were sloppy and rapid, with tongues flying everywhere and teeth clattering together. But Blaine remembered how soft Kurt's mouth had been. He remembered his light gasp, the tenseness in his body slowly relaxing, his eyes almost rolling back into his head as they closed, his nervous and tentative kisses back.

Throwing the pillow to block out the sound from outside, Blaine sighed. He grabbed the half-empty beer bottle from off his desk and took a small swig. Some kids had warm milk to help them go to sleep, and Blaine had booze.

One thing that Blaine was happy about was that he now knew that Kurt wanted him in some sort of way. Kurt was going to doubt it tomorrow - he was probably going to say something along the lines of "you're a jerk, I don't like you, I'm a blushing little virgin, blah blah blah." Blaine was annoyed with those kids who wanted their first times to be romantic and symbolic, taking place on a beach surrounded by rose petals. It's just...sex. Blaine's first time, when he was fourteen and a half, was in the back of a pick up truck with some kid a year older than him that he used to know. During that time, the kid Blaine had sex with (note: he wasn't old enough to have a drivers license) had stolen his Dad's car and had driven to a near by McDonalds to just hang out with Blaine. They'd gotten bored, decided to knock boots, and there. The sex hadn't even been spectacularly enjoyable. There was too much honking coming from outside, and since Blaine had topped, the guy kept making unneeded, wailing noises that could easily have been suppressed.

Still. Blaine knew Kurt wasn't special to him, but somehow his kiss survived long enough in his memory for him to think about later. Was it because Kurt was a virgin who'd never even made eye contact with a hot boy before? No.. that couldn't be it. Blaine had plenty of virgins before, all of them unmemorable. Was it because Blaine could usually get a guy in less than a few hours, but since Kurt kept him holding on for that long, the kiss was more climactic? Probably not...because while Kurt Hummel was easy on the eyes, he was talkative and annoyingly witty.

Blaine had no idea why he felt the way he did about this kiss, Whatever it was, it made his skin itch and his mind whirl. He wanted so badly for Kurt to be lying with him right now. He wanted not only to taste Kurt's lips again, but to taste _every_ part of him. He longed to hear the light screams and cries, feel fingers twisted in his hair, feel Kurt wrapped around him...yeah. Blaine decided that he needed it. There was no doubt that Kurt was going to be stubborn tomorrow. He was most likely going to be embarrassed and shy, trying to hide the fact that he totally enjoyed what happened yesterday. And that would be fine with Blaine, because all he had to do was get Kurt alone and kiss him again. Then maybe, if there weren't enough distractions, Kurt would be his.

Of course, Blaine wouldn't do anything to make Kurt scared. He wasn't that kind of monster. He wasn't going to touch him where he didn't want to be touched, wouldn't make him cry out for help as certain parts of him broke. Blaine would never do that, not to anyone. But Blaine knew for a fact that Kurt wanted more of earlier, and it just so happened that Blaine was willing to give it to him.


	9. Soft Spot

Second period begun. Students started to stumble their way into class, taking their seats as they started to talk about anything but The American Revolution. Kurt, of course, started to edit some of his study notes he made yesterday. If you watched very, very closely, you would be able to see Kurt's pencil gently trembling in his hand.

Kurt was nervous about what would happen when Blaine walked in. He didn't know if Blaine was going to tease him relentlessly, or if he was just going to leave it at that and not say anything. Suddenly, Blaine walked through the door. He stared at nothing as he made his way to sit dow at Kurt's table. He plopped down in his seat, throwing his bag on the floor and pulling one of his knees up so it was trapped in between the table and his body. He leaned his back into the chair, looking comfortable. Ms. Bernard was talking away as she looked down at her textbook, and Kurt couldn't take the silence.

"Um," Kurt whispered without looking at Blaine, "So. Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Blaine answered, but he also didn't look back at Kurt so that the teacher didn't notice them. "What?"

"I know you've been on my back for a month now," Kurt said, "But I wasn't expecting you to do what you did yesterday."

"Are you saying you didn't enjoy it?"

"I...did. A little, sort of. But I still want to talk about it."

Blaine was surprised. He didn't think that Kurt was going to admit that he enthusiastically responded to Blaine's kiss so easily.

"Well, what do you want to talk about? There's nothing to say. I wanted you, you wanted me, there."

"I did not _want_ you," Kurt hissed. "I was taken off guard and you stuck your tongue down my throat."

"But the point is, you _genuinely relished _in me yesterday. wouldn't you want to do it again?"

"No," Kurt snarled. "I don't want to do anything with you again. It was a mistake that I hope to never make again."

"If kissing isn't want you want again," Blaine smiled sweetly, "Than how about something else? There's a whole variety of things to choose from, angel face. How would you like to pick an occupation? Hand jobs, Blow jobs, Rim jo-"

"Enough!" Kurt raised his voice and most of the people in the class looked at him. Blaine laughed loudly, covering his mouth with his hand, when he saw the abashed expression on Kurt's face.

"Is there a problem here, boys?" Ms. Bernard said, crossing her arms.

"No, m'am," Kurt answered quickly. "Just...I'm going to the bathroom."

Kurt left the room without another word, and most people went back to doing their work or ignoring the lesson. Both Rachel and Blaine looked that the door, and Rachel leaned over the side of her seat, whispering harshly.

"What did you say to him?"

Blaine shrugged. "Nothing. I was only being friendly."

"You're a real prick, you know that?" Rachel frowned. "Leave him alone. He's got no business with you."

"Think again, Princess," Blaine said. "He's got plenty of business with me, a lot of it still unfinished."

A few moments later, when Kurt didn't come back, Blaine got up out of his seat and left the room without asking permission. Not that Ms. Bernard even cared; he did it way too often for it to become a scheduled activity.

Blaine walked out of the room, heading in the direction towards the men's bathrooms. He pushed open the door, and Kurt was facing towards a small, rectangular mirror above the sinks. Blaine stood with his side leaning against the wall and his arms crossed in front of him. He wore a careless expression until he saw the tiny, red rims underneath Kurt's eyes.

"Wha-" Blaine was about to ask, but then Kurt stopped him.

"Why do you have to be such a jerk?" Kurt's voice choked. He turned his head to face Blaine, not exactly looking him straight in the eye. Light tears poured down his face. Blaine was rigid, his eyes wide.

Kurt sobbed. "It's not fair. You can't just do that to people, Blaine. You can't just mess around with people's feelings like that."

Kurt went back to facing the mirror, rubbing at his eyes furiously. Blaine stared at Kurt, not really sure what to say. He did feel a tiny bit bad, since he'd never gotten wrath from anyone other than Kurt before, and he wasn't good at using words.

Regardless, Blaine found himself moving his body on it's own account. He got up off the wall and walked behind Kurt, close enough so that he could feel Blaine's breath on the back of his neck. Kurt shivered.

"I know I'm a dick," Blaine started, a little awkwardly but still locking eyes with Kurt in the mirror in front of them. "You know that. But you also know that I want you. I've been raised to be a sleaze ever since I came into the world, angel face. I do all that I can to not fuck shit up, but it'll always happen. It really shouldn't have been that big of a surprise yesterday, I've been chasing your ass since day one."

Kurt wiped at his eye, giggling a little. He turned around. "You are really stupid."

They stared at each other in silence, Kurt just starting to finally overcome his tears. A million unspoken thoughts were trapped in their minds. Like how Blaine was wondering to himself why he'd come after Kurt, or why he felt even slightly bad for being apart of the reason for Kurt's sadness. Or how Kurt was thinking how Blaine didn't seem so bad right about now, or why he enjoyed Blaine's lips against his so much. But they decided not to speak out, as it probably would cause even more kerfuffle than there already was between the two.

Kurt just swallowed at a lump in his throat, while at the same time, Blaine cleared his own. When they had been staring at each other, it hadn't been so uncomfortable, but now that the tension was released, the mood shifted. Blaine rubbed the back of his neck almost shyly, which surprised Kurt. Was Blaine feeling a little nervous after having a confession thrown out on the floor?

_Well_, Kurt thought, _telling me that he wanted access to my pants isn't really that big of an epiphany that I had to know. It's been obvious ever since he walked into class a month ago._

But still. The way Blaine's voice sounded when he said this didn't sound as cocky or snooty as it usually did. There was a gentler tone in it, but behind that carefulness was a layer of firm, solid persuasiveness. Almost like Blaine was saying, "Come on, Kurt. I swear it when I say it. I'm not a perfect guy, and there's no way in hell I'm good at romance, but let me tell you, I know how to make you feel at your best. I can show you that, if you'd give me a chance."

Kurt just shook his head. He was twisting Blaine's words and knew that something like that would never happen, probably not even from another guy. Blaine stopped scratching his head and stuffed his fists into his pockets. Kurt normally found such a sloppy pose unattractive, but Blaine was leaning on the wall with a few of those gorgeous curls hanging in his eyes, and suddenly Kurt found it to not look so bad.

"Well," Blaine said, "I'm sorry, I guess, that I made you upset. I wasn't thinking. You were just so close to me and I just wanted _so badly_ to..."

"Blaine Anderson is apologizing?" Kurt mock-gasped, his hand flying up and covering his mouth. Blaine glared at him with annoyed eyes, but he was still smiling.

"Don't get used to it," Blaine continued. "I'm just saying. Not a lot of guys have gotten...I don't know, angry at me like that before. And trust me, I've done more with them than I have with you."

"No need to jump into furthur details," Kurt snorted.

"Wasn't planning to," Blaine said.

"It's just weird. Even though that was a lousy apology, I still can't believe you did it anyway. Feels like I've fallen into another dimension where you're not such a dick."

"And where you're not so stubborn," Blaine added. "But seriously, like I just said five seconds ago. Don't get used to me being all caring or whatever."

Kurt chuckled lightly, smiling. "Does this mean you have a soft spot for me, then?"

Blaine suddenly glared at Kurt, not unkindly, but certainly with enough intensity to shut Kurt up. "I don't reserve soft spots for anyone, babe."

And with that, Blaine winked and began to walk out of the bathroom. The clock on the wall above the stalls read that it was almost time to go to the next period.

"I hope this means you'll...Are you going to stop hitting on me?" Kurt called just as Blaine was about to leave. For some reason, Kurt didn't want to say that he hoped it stopped. He did, he had enough of the cheesy pick up lines and vulgar jokes, but something small in the pit of his stomach told him that he still needed it all to be real. Whatever that was. Kurt Hummel was a very troubled teenage boy, you see, and fought with himself daily about a million different things.

"Oh honey," Blaine replied without turning around, "I'm not one to give up so easily."

_AN: My step-mother called The Book Loft (the store in Ohio in which I will meet Chris Colfer) and she so generously pre-ordered the book for me and reserved a spot in line for me! My number in line is #294, and I couldn't be happier. I need to get to work on my letter I'm going to give him, but I have a million things to say and one sheet of paper. I mean, how am I going to summarize my thoughts? "Hi Chris, I've been stalking you since 2009 and I write romantic fan fiction about yours and Darren's characters, plus I love Next to Normal and Wicked just as much as you do and OH! Wanna get married?" This is going to be harder than I thought..._


	10. New Light

_AN: Holy cow, I just finished reading Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, and let me tell you. It was really fantastic, even though I say that for 90% of the books I read. Still, it was so imaginative, and I really hope Ransom Riggs writes a sequel, because I'd eat it up. Also, July is the month where one Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars passed away. I shall weep in bed while holding my copy of the book, reading it over and over until my eyes are numb._

_If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change..._

"Hold on a minute, guys!" Mr. Schue called from the auditorium seats. The New Directions finally got their last chance to rehearse before Sectionals in the school auditorium. Mr. Schue, along with the girls, were seated in the audience along with Mr. Schue. The boys were up on stage, because Mr. Schue wanted to evaluate the girls and boys separately, and then all together as a group. Since this number already featured the boys heavily, the girls wouldn't really need to be in this number until the end, where everyone sang as a chorus.

"Guys, everything is sounding spectacular so far," Mr. Schue said, making his way onto the stage. "But there are a few rough spots. Finn, you keep step-touching in the wrong direction."

"I told you I can't tell my rights from my lefts," Finn muttered under his breath, too low for his teacher to hear.

"Puck, you're making your steps a little too large. Try stepping shoulder lengths apart, like this." Mr. Schue demonstrated.

Kurt placed a hand on his hip and sighed. He looked up at the hot, bright lights hanging from the McKinley auditorium ceiling, shining in his eyes. He imagined it being a Broadway spotlight casted over a New York stage just as he was about to sing a show tune. Kurt loved his glee club very much, yes. It was one of the few placed where he could go and express himself. But still, at times like this, he could think of a million different things he could be doing.

In two days, it would be Sectionals. Kurt didn't have any solo's, only a few lines during "ABC" that he shared with Mike and Tina. He was excited about the competition, especially since it was going to be held at McKinley for the first time ever, and Kurt was pretty determined that they were going to take home the winning trophy. Obviously, they still had some minor patches to clean up, but hey, that's what rehearsals were for.

"Alright guys...from the top!"

**2 DAYS LATER**

Earlier on in the week, Blaine heard a lot of buzz about a show choir competition being held at McKinley on the weekend. And by buzz, of course, he meant Rachel and Kurt gossiping about the rival schools in History class, when they whispered to each other in their diagonal seats. Blaine decided he didn't like competition season very much, because this meant that Kurt ignored Blaine much more often in favor of talking to his friends about the show. Sometimes, Kurt even got to miss a few classes to help the club and Mr. Schue set up the auditorium for the weekend. Blaine had to admit it, as much as he didn't want to: he was bored without Kurt.

He felt his ennui build up as he tried to get Kurt's attention. Apparently, this glee club thing really seemed to be important to him. Everyday, Blaine saw at least one of the glee club members getting a slushy thrown in their face, if not, more. It wasn't difficult to see that they were an odd bunch not in favor of the rest of the school. There was a glee club at Dalton, Blaine's old school, but it didn't interest Blaine. However, Blaine's guilty pleasure was sitting alone in his room for hours while sitting on his window sill, strumming his guitar and belting out his voice. Blaine had been singing ever since he was very young, never for an audience but just for himself. It made him feel just a tiny bit better when things were going wrong.

Blaine once heard in a health lesson that singing can actually release some sort of chemical into the bloodstream that causes people to become more happy. He didn't remember the name of the chemical, and he didn't even really know if it was true or just some bullshit to convince people to start singing. But if it was true, then maybe that's what Blaine was feeling every time he sang on those lonely nights when his mother was asleep at work. Either that, or raw, diligent passion.

Nonetheless, Blaine decided to check out the performance himself to see if the glee club was any good. He couldn't remember the name of the club, (from what he heard from Rachel and Kurt's chats, it sort of sounded like nude-erections, something that Blaine was ironically, totally into.) But aside from their hilarious name, Blaine wanted to see if they were as good as Kurt claimed they were.

Blaine arrived at the school on Saturday, around seven. The only reason Blaine had to come to school on weekends were either to smoke alone in the parking lot or cause mischief by running around with Puck and spray painting graffiti on walls. But even then, Blaine was a little bit late. By the time he got there, everyone had already been seated. It looked like a pretty packed house, but Blaine didn't really plan on staying long anyways, so he just stood at the entrance of the door with his back pressed to the wall and his arms crossed. Nobody really noticed him; he sort of camouflaged in with hi surroundings.

The performances had already begun, and a few of the other glee clubs already sung, so now it was McKinley's own "New Directions" (_that's what their name was!_ Blaine thought) to make their way onto the stage. Everyone was wearing matching outfits, white jackets with black lapels and bowties, with black skirts and hight heels for the girls and black pants and dress shoes for the boys. Their outfits kind of reminded Blaine of those penguins from Mary Poppins, or fancy restaurant waiters that spoke with french accent and refilled your glass with red wine every 5 minutes.

Blaine straightened himself up a little against the wall when he saw Kurt. Even thought he was pretty far away, he had to admit that he looked...great in a suit. Blaine was never attracted to kinds of guys like Kurt, with their squeaky clean faces and clothing so peculiar it looked like it should belong on the set of _Sweeney Todd. _But Kurt was a grand exception in Blaine's head.

The band at the back of the stage started to play. Immediately, Blaine recognized the Jackson 5 song as soon as an asian girl started to hum a familiar "buh buh buh buh buh buh," and the rest of the club echoed her. Blaine actually really liked this song. Back when his mother wasn't some crazy drunk, she's play this song around the house while she cleaned the house before parties.

"_Like I before E except after C.._."

Blaine's head snapped up all the way at the sound of Kurt's voice singing. Blaine almost didn't believe it was him. Kurt's voice was normally so high pitched, but in this song it was like someone turned down a nob on a machine. His voice magically transformed, sounding a few octaves lower than it usually did. And it sounded great. Now, Blaine wasn't paying much attention to the rest of the club. Kurt was singing with the asian girl and an asian boy he knew as Mike, while the chorus harmonized behind them and the band played on.

Kurt was an impressive performer. In fact, Blaine was a little incredulous as to why he wasn't singing as much as the asian girl or Mike. He had limited lines, but still made the most of what he had an made them sound great. Kurt was a good dancer, too. Maybe one of the best dancers in the whole club, apart from Mike, who was killing the performance with his dancing moves, and another blonde girl in the background. There was even one point where Mike crouched over and Kurt jumped over him like a child playing leapfrog, practically doing the splits in the air. Blaine's eyes almost popped out of his head at this.

Oddly enough, Blaine found himself smiling during the performance. It was pretty difficult to get Blaine to smile at anything, but everyone looked so happy, the audience entertained, that it was impossible to not get sucked in. But there was no denying that Blaine was probably a little turned on and mesmerized by Kurt right now.

Blaine began to see Kurt in a new light. Sure, he was still hot as hell and Blaine wouldn't mind at all getting to mess around with him. But with the spotlight shining on him as he sang and danced until he broke into both a sweat and a huge smile, Blaine started to recognize passion and determination in his expression. When Kurt was on stage, he was focused on nothing else but being able to deliver a proper, hard-working, toe-tapping performance. And, well, Blaine saw more than just sexiness and sassiness in that. He saw beauty, as well.

When the song was over, everyone burst into a loud applause. There were cheers and whistles coming from every direction. Blaine eventually gave into the hype, shaking his head and slowly clapping, even thought he knew Kurt couldn't see him from where he was. He wish he did, though.

Once all of the songs were finished, the New Directions were granted ten minutes by themselves so that the judges could decide who the winner would be. The kids made their way off the stage, big smiles on their faces and their chests and shoulders heaving from all the dancing. They went behind the giant curtains, and the audience started to hum with chatter while the three judges got up from their seats. They were all carrying clip boards and, to Blaine, looked like they were people who shouldn't be adjudicating an event like this.

Blaine decided he wasn't going to stay to watch the rest, because it was going to be a full ten minutes until he'd get to see Kurt again. He pushed himself off the wall, stuffed his hands into his pocket and walked out of the auditorium.

The night was relatively chilly for November. The sky turned even darker since Blaine last got to the school, the sky dusted with tiny stars not bright enough to illuminate it. Blaine unlocked his car and cranked the front seat all the way back so that he was almost lying down. He scrolled down the window, even though it was cold. Lighting up a cigarette, he inhaled and blew it out the window towards the night.

As he stared up at the sky, he couldn't help but think of Kurt. He looked and sounded so incredible tonight. Blaine wondered what he must've sounded like when he sung a whole solo in his natural range. He bet it would've sounded amazing.

"Stop," Blaine muttered to himself as he blew another thin stream of smoke again. Kurt was just a boy. He shouldn't be having thoughts about Kurt like this. The only thoughts he had about most attractive boys was how he imagined them without any clothes on. Obviously, he'd thought about this with Kurt several times, and was shameless about it. But never did he get any more than that, no extra feelings. He began to think more deeply about Kurt, analyze his face in his head, or his voice, or his entire being. Blaine had a feeling that after tonight, these feelings would be more fervent. He wasn't sure if he wanted them to be or not.

But like he'd said many times before, Blaine Anderson made soft spots for no one. _No one. _And especially not a bitch-queen-super-diva like Kurt. Blaine was a durable rock. Empty, a hard shell. He wasn't the type of person who made room for people in his heart. Blaine was just going to assume that this stupid little facade was simply a phase. There was always going to be some extra-hot person that sticks to your mind like glue. All Blaine had to do was hopefully hook up with a willing Kurt, and then the feelings would burst like a soap bubble.

He finished the last of his cigarette, turning it into a tiny stump with a bright orange tip. He flicked it out the window, started up the car, and drove out of the parking lot. And though he would never tell anyone about it, he began to softly sing some Michael Jackson lyrics to himself.


	11. Bleachers

_AN: I need to ask a question for all my readers. When you are scrolling through the Klaine stories, can you find The Art of Losing Yourself? Whenever I'm looking through the Klaine section, I can't find my own story and I don't know why. This never happened before with any of my other stories, not since got a major make over. Please let me know, because I have no idea why it isn't showing up to me...also, if it's a problem why I can't see the story, is that a bad sign? Should I be fixing something? P.S. Oh my god. Chris's new photo shoot for Mr. Porter was so hot that I had to stop looking at the screen for a sec._

It was obvious that the New Directions had won.

Blaine knew this because of the sopping-wet, red and blue ice covered glee club members walking down the halls with smiles on their faces. Because no one smiled when they were dripping sugar unless something really great happened.

Another reason why Blaine had discovered this so quickly was because he over heard some dark-skinned girl and a latina cheerleader discussing it at a locker. Blaine wasn't usually an eavesdropper, but when people talked too loudly in the halls, it wasn't a choice whether you got to hear the latest gossip or not.

Blaine was happy for them, he supposed. He didn't really know anybody in the club except for Kurt, and to be honest, that's all he was really paying attention to. But he guess they'd deserved to win after all the shit he'd heard about them. Maybe the school didn't seem to care so much about it, but it was pleasant for them. In history class, Blaine wanted to say something to Kurt about the performance. But he was too busy talking to Rachel that he didn't get a chance to say anything. Now that he thought of it, it'd be kind of creepy to tell Kurt that he was watching him and only him, so he decided maybe he shouldn't blurt.

Towards the end of the day, Blaine was walking around the running track aimlessly, breathing puffs into the cold air and completely ignoring the football team running around. His leather jacket and thin sweater didn't really offer much protection against the cold, but Blaine was used to cold. He didn't really feel it anymore. All those late night's out at god know's where in whatever condition made Blaine's body adapt easier to all sorts of things.

He looked to the bleachers, and he spotted a tiny, white speck sitting on them. He squinted, unable to see properly. He couldn't quite make out who was sitting there, and Blaine didn't really care either, but regardless he was walking over to them to sit down and take out a cigarette. It's not like the football coach, Coach Beiste, could see him anyways. She was too busy yelling remarks at Finn and Puck and all the other fat, wannabe athletes.

Blaine climbed up the bleachers one by one, not even looking down to see if he'd miss any steps and fall through the seats. As he got closer, he realized that the tiny speck he'd seen earlier was Kurt. He was sitting, snuggled up in a white jacket, sporting fingerless gloves with a book resting on his lap. He shivered a little, but thankfully, the weather wasn't deathly cold. Blaine swallowed and plopped right down next to Kurt.

"Hey," Blaine said, looking out at the green field, watching as the football players scattered to their positions.

Kurt, not looking up from his book, said, "What are you doing here?"

"Can a man not freely rome his local track?" Blaine replied, not unkindly. He began to search for a cigarette in a little blue carton, but then decided he didn't want to smoke when Kurt was near. He shoved the package back into his pocket. He didn't know why he was making reservations for Kurt, he never did with any other guy.

"Of course you can," Kurt said. "I just never see you here."

"I don't see you here either."

"Well, if we're both not around, we can't see each other."

There was a pause. They could hear the faint shoutings from the players and the coach, and suddenly there was a brown oval soaring in the sky.

"What are _you _doing here?" Blaine asked. "I thought you hated sports."

"I do," Kurt sighed, "But Finn's car had an accident and my dad has to fix it, so I have to wait for Finn to finish practice so I can drive him home."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you guys were cousins."

"Step-brothers."

"Same thing."

Kurt snorted. He closed his book (Shakespear, must have been for a class) and placed it in his bag. He rubbed his hands together, not because they were cold, but because they weren't occupied at the moment.

"Why not just go inside instead of freezing your ass off?" Blaine asked. This time, he turned to look at Kurt.

Kurt shrugged. "I don't know. I kind of don't like being inside the school anyway. Horrible memories."

Blaine scoffed. "Don't we all have those?"

The two turned towards the field again, a quietness between them. Without looking, Blaine placed his hand down on the bleacher beneath him, but froze when he felt fingers underneath his. He looked down and saw Kurt's hand underneath his, his fingers curled up. They boys looked at each other and like lightning, pulled away.

"Sorry," they both said at the same time. Blaine could see the redness in Kurt's cheeks, which normally made him happy, but for some reason he found Kurt looking beautiful instead of a hot piece of meat.

_Blush makes people look cuter, right?_ Blaine thought to himself as he felt himself grow embarrassed.

"Stop doing that," Kurt said out of nowhere.

"What?" Blaine raised his eyebrow.

"Stop scrutinizing my every move. It makes me nervous."

"Doesn't it make you all hot and bothered?"

"You are so ridiculous."

"It's just the way I'm built."

Another pause.

"I saw you on Saturday."

_Woah! Where did that come from? _Blaine thought to himself. He didn't plan on telling Kurt that he saw him performing, but Blaine was an awfully honest person who could tell great lies at the same time. Being honest was one of these times.

"You did?" Kurt turned to him, looking a little confused and excited. "You saw our performance?"

"Yeah," Blaine cleared his throat. "It was really good. You were really good."

They held each other's gazes now. It felt only slightly awkward, but it was over powered by something warmer that neither of the boys recognized. Kurt felt his lips curl into a smile.

"Really?" He asked.

"Yes," Blaine told him. "I thought you were great. Probably the best one up there. You definitely should have gotten more to sing. Especially over annoying ass Berry and Hudson."

Kurt giggled. "They're my friends and everything, but it would be really nice to get a tiny bit more attention in glee. Its like I'm not even there sometimes."

"I say demand to get what you want," Blaine suggested. He scratched the back of his head and leaned his back against the bleacher behind him. "Or quit."

"I can't quit," Kurt sighed. "It's all I have here."

"Quitting sometimes is the only way they'll notice you."

"I'm not a quitter."

Blaine leaned his head back on the bleacher and closed his eyes. "That's a great and terrible quality about you, Hummel."

Kurt couldn't help but stare at Blaine's neck, dusted with a light stubble, his adam's apple resting in the center. Kurt's tongue darted out to lick his lips, and then he looked away when Blaine opened his eyes.

"I like when you're like this," Kurt admitted.

"Like what?"

"When you're not firing dirty jokes at me or acting like an ass."

"Ah, but then I'd be a boring douche bag if I didn't do those things," Blaine smirked and pointed a finger to Kurt.

"Boring douche bags are better than trying-to-hard, pretentious ones."

"Then be glad you aren't one like me. You're a pretty little thing with a great ass and a future ahead of you."

"You don't?"

"Probably not."

Kurt looked a little hurt at this. Even thought Blaine was annoying sometimes, he wasn't stupid or any less deserving of good things.

"Well, you're-" Kurt began.

"It's nothing," Blaine sighed heavily, cutting Kurt off. "Nothing."

After a while of staring at each other, Blaine got up, brushed off his pants and stretched and arm above his head. "Well, he said, "I need a smoke. I'm going underneath the bleachers. Feel free to join me if you want to inhale toxins."

Blaine hoped down the bleachers with practiced skill, and walked to the side out of sight. Kurt shook his head. He couldn't shake Blaine's compliments about his voice and talent out of his head. Kurt didn't get compliments very often, and if he did, they came with a side note about what he could improve on. "Kurt, that was a great song, but you were flat on some notes." "Kurt, your speed needs work, but good job on your flexibility."

And for some strange reason, something made Kurt's legs move on their own will. He was getting up, completely forgetting about his bag and walking down the bleachers, trying not to wobble on the way down. He walked to the side and underneath the white bleacher's. If you looked up, they looked like a giant skeletal remains of a prehistoric creature, trapping the sounds of the wind in it.

Kurt saw Blaine. He in fact, wasn't smoking. He was lying with his back propped up against a vertical beam, his eyes closed with his nose tilted towards the sky. It appeared to be a lot warmer underneath the bleachers, because Blaine had shed his black jacket and cast it to the side, and now he was only wearing a dark blue t-shirt. Kurt thought Blaine looked so peaceful. Some of his curls hung in his face, and his breathing was even.

Kurt padded across the dry grass and sat down cross legged next to Blaine. Blaine suddenly opened his eyes too quickly; the illusion was broken through. He turned his head towards Kurt. They noticed how close together they were, and they blinked once. Twice. Again.

The boys simultaneously moved and connected their mouthes together in an alarming, profound eagerness.


	12. Pause

_AN: Thanks everyone for answering my question last chapter. I have no idea why you guys can find my story, but I can't. I don't know if I'm not looking hard enough or if it's something else, but it just never pops up whenever I update. But it's comforting to know that you guys can find it. Also...I am really pissed off. I was reading some of the tweets from the Glee panel at Comic Con, and just the writers and stuff come up with really stupid excuses. I don't know. You guys should read the tweets and decide for yourselves what you think they're saying is bullshit or not, because it is to me._

Kurt was panting. Panting normally embarrassed Kurt and made him feel uncomfortable, especially when actors in sex scenes panted unnecessarily loudly and dramatically. The only time Kurt ever panted himself was when he was out of breath after running around the track in gym class, or when he just finished singing a larger, more energetic song in glee club. But Kurt just couldn't help himself now, not when he was sitting underneath the bleachers with Blaine Anderson.

The panting was muffled by Blaine's mouth covering and entering Kurt's, which saved Kurt a lot of humiliation. But it's not like he would care to notice anyway, he was completely lost at the moment. Kurt and Blaine's first kiss was slow and forceful, and the only difference between this kiss was that there were multiple ones instead of an individual, solitary one. Kurt's head was spinning out of control, like one of those cheap rides at an amusement park. But this was far more better than a roller coaster.

Blaine's lips were very soft, just like Kurt remembered. It was a new and different sensation, having the contrast of soft lips and rough stubble against his face. This was completely out of character for Kurt. Kissing underneath the bleachers? How very cliche and 80's movie style. But Blaine groaned lightly and all thoughts turned to mush in Kurt's head.

"So hot," Blaine whispered huskily against Kurt's mouth. Kurt shivered and he reached his hands over to slide against Blaine's bare arms. Soon, Kurt could feel that he wasn't the only one shivering. Kurt almost squealed when he felt one of Blaine's arms wrap around his back, pulling Kurt on top of his lap. Kurt sunk into the little space created by Blaine's legs, and they resumed their kissing. Kurt kept his limp hands fisted into the collar of Blaine's shirt, and Blaine was absentmindedly undoing the first button on Kurt's jacket.

Blaine leaned forward a little bit and encircled his arms around Kurt so that he wouldn't fall over. He leaned in and his lips landed right in the center of Kurt's neck. He began to kiss it repeatedly, Kurt throwing his head back and biting on his lip to stop himself from crying out. He felt his own fingers slowly move to the back of Blaine's neck. He gently toyed with the curls there, making Blaine sigh out in pleasure.

They started kissing again, compressed tightly together, the beam behind Blaine making a creaking noise every time he leaned on it. Kurt couldn't help but notice how gentle Blaine was being with Kurt. You would have thunk that Blaine'd be all wild and untamable when it came to the physical stuff, but Kurt, oddly enough, didn't have any bruises or marks on him. Blaine bit Kurt's lower lips between his teeth, and Kurt's eyes shot open.

He started to push Blaine away, still sitting in his lap. Blaine tried to move forward again to kiss Kurt, but Kurt stopped him, his heart thundering.

"Wait, wait," Kurt gasped. "What are we doing?"

Blaine's eyes looked seductive, luring in Kurt and trying to trap him. "Come on, baby," Blaine whispered, rubbing his hand in a soothing motion on Kurt's side. "Please."

Once again, Blaine closed his eyes and kissed Kurt. Kurt surrendered for only a few short minutes before pulling away again and shaking his head.

"No, Blaine," Kurt said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be doing this."

"But Kurt," Blaine's voice almost sounded whiny for a brief second, but then it changed back into it's deep, scratchy tone. He pulled Kurt to him and put his lips directly in his ear. Kurt was propped up against Blaine's chest, his elbows trapped between them and his face beside Blaine's.

"Dammit, Kurt, I..." Blaine sighed. "I can't stop thinking about you. You're making me crazy."

Kurt couldn't see straight, and he whimpered when Blaine kissed the corner of his mouth, and then locked eyes with him.

"You know I'm not that type of person," Kurt swallowed away his choked voice.

"I know you're not, and just because you make out with a dirty rat like me doesn't mean you're going to lose your innocence," Blaine reassured. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to make you do shit you don't want to do. But you know I'e wanted you for the longest time, and I can see that you do, too."

Kurt was very surprised at the sincerity of Blaine's words. Blaine would only sometimes have those rare moments where he would talk like he wanted to change something about himself, like he was intelligent and thought deeply. Which he was, but it was always masked over, like a blanket hiding his identity. Kurt stared into Blaine's eyes, and then, he didn't see a cocky bad-boy. He just saw a regular teenage boy who liked another boy. Kurt was going to beat himself up for this later, but he closed his eyes, took a deep breath so that he wouldn't need to surface for air so quickly, and kissed Blaine again.

They kissed for quite some time, releasing feeble sighs and gasps underneath this tiny space hidden from the world. Obviously, Kurt didn't have that much experience with this kind of stuff, and his first kiss with Blaine was short. But this one really made ecstasy race through his veins and made his face feel a thousand degrees warmer.

"Uh...Kurt...?"

Apparently, underneath the bleachers wasn't hidden enough.

Kurt's eyes flew open, and he gasped into Blaine's mouth, breaking away and whirling around to see Finn. He had a large, black sports bag flung over his shoulder and he was no longer dressed in his football uniform. Instead, he wore a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, a grey sweater, and an EXTREMELY uncomfortable face.

"Finn!" Kurt hissed, his cheeks flushed from embarrassment. "I told you to wait for me at the car!"

"Well, I didn't think I would have to be the one waiting for you!" Finn held his hands up in defense. He knew how snappy his step-brother could get.

Kurt stood up off of Blaine's lap quickly, knocking his head on one of the bleachers above. Kurt grit his teeth, annoyed as he rubbed the spot on his head where he got hit. His face was the color of a fire engine, and he quickly straightened out his jacket (which was a little crooked thanks to Blaine) as he put on his best serene face. He walked out from under the bleachers, right past Finn. Kurt didn't even get to notice the slight hurt in Blaine's eyes, almost as if beckoning Kurt to come back and sit in his lap again. Finn cleared his throat awkwardly and followed after Kurt without another word.

After Kurt retrieved his bag, he and Finn made their way to Kurt's black navigator parked in the parking lot. They were quiet until they started driving, Finn in the passenger's seat. He began to ramble.

"What the hell was that?" asked Finn.

"It was nothing," Kurt kept his eyes on the road, but it was obvious that he was shy to talk about this.

"Uh... are you sure, man? I mean that Blaine kid is a total prick, are you sure you don't need me to kick the cra-"

"I said it was nothing, Finn!" Kurt raised his voice. "Can we please just not talk about it and never bring it up again?"

Finn eyed his step-brother for a little while longer, until he nodded. "Okay."

The rest of the drive home was extremely painful. They were both too afraid to start talking again of to reach for the radio and put on some music. All Kurt could think of the whole time was whether he made a mistake or not. He really, really couldn't tell.


	13. Possibility

_AN: Well ladies and gentleman, The Land of Stories is officially out in the open! I am so, so proud of everything Chris has done, especially since this project was something he wanted to do since he was a little boy. I hope everyone has a great time reading the book, and I have less than two weeks to go until I go to the book signing! I already pre-ordered the book there, and while I could just but the book now and read it before the signing, I'd rather wait until Chris signs it himself! I hope we can gossip like old ladies at a tea party about this book! P.S., the song used in this chapter is called Dolly, Op. 56 by Gabriel Faure. This song is a piano duet with no lyrics. At school, I heard a couple of my piano major friends rehearsing this song in the practice rooms, and I immediately fell in love with this song and I needed to have it in the story. It's a beautiful piece even if you're not into piano music, so please check it out!_

Blaine hated sleep. He wasn't one of those teenagers that loved getting to crash for hours at night, and the only time he really slept was briefly during class or after school. But his naps never lasted long. Blaine would rather stay up during the night either finishing pointless homework that he already understood, keeping himself up by drinking stale booze and reading _The Great Gatsby_ for the millionth time, or out roaming the streets to find someone to smoke with. So it wasn't like Blaine slept during the night anyway.

But this night, this particular night, Blaine was certain he couldn't sleep.

It was so frustrating, too, because for once Blaine actually did want to sleep. Just for a few hours, he wanted to turn off his brain and forget things for a while. But there he was, perched on his window sill with one knee drawn up and the other leg hanging down with a cigarette dangling in between his fingers. He didn't even bother to smoke it, and the thin stick was starting to form a long cylinder of ash at the filter. Blaine stared out at the night sky, not even noticing the frosty breeze that came blustering inwards.

Kurt Kurt Kurt. That's all Blaine could think about. Hands down, the best kiss Blaine had ever had. It was everything he could ever want in a kiss, and the fact that Kurt was still so brand new to the world of sex and physical factors just made Blaine want it all the more. But there was so much more to it all, and that's what angered Blaine! He wasn't supposed to feel more than the rush of attraction when he made out with somebody. His heart wasn't supposed to swell when Kurt fell into his lap, and it wasn't supposed to feel deliciously wonderful when Kurt gasped so innocently as Blaine's hands ghosted across his skin.

Blaine didn't bother to finish his cigarette. He jammed it down into his glass ash-tray, and then he flicked it out the window. As he watched the cigarette fall to the grass below, he began to ponder why he felt so upset when Kurt pulled away from him and trudged off with his mortified step-brother. When he got up from Blaine's comfortable position, Blaine felt a sudden rush of coldness and absence of warmth. Blaine was almost going to say something along the lines of "Finn, get the hell out of here before I take that football of yours and chuck it up your ass." Blaine put his forehead down on his knee, taking a deep breath and feeling more confused than ever. He'd said ir before and he'd say it again: Kurt Hummel was just a boy.

Was he really?

Kurt was bossy, sometimes a little over-opinionated and a little whiny at times. But he was also brave, intelligent and had a heart. Blaine really thought deeply that night. Maybe Kurt wasn't just another boy to knock boots with. Did kisses feel different when there was emotion involved? Or did they feel the same? Blaine knew a lot of things,but he didn't know this. Blaine sighed heavily, almost dramatically.

**THE NEXT DAY**

"HUMMEL'S GOT A HICKEY!" Puck shouted. He pointed directly at Kurt, his eyes wide and a loud laugh threatening to burst out of his mouth.

It was almost the end of glee rehearsal, and now everyone's eyes were on Kurt's, trying to scan his body and detect the hickey Puck spoke of. Kurt blushed furiously, recoiling at everybody.

Okay, so apparently, Blaine was capable of leaving marks.

Santana gasped. "He's right!" She thrust a finger in Kurt's direction. "Damn, Hummel! You're finally getting in on some action! Tell us, who were you getting naked with?"

"Oh my god," Rachel and Tina breathed at the same time, their faces a mix between shock and excitement. Kurt could smell the gossip already.

"W-what?" Kurt choked. "It's not a hickey!"

Kurt had tried his best to cover it up the night before, but after an hour of dance rehearsals, Kurt had completely forgotten about the small bruise on his neck and slid off his scarf since it was getting so hot in the room. Kurt's hand flew protectively to his neck, but it was too late. Everyone had seen the little mark.

"A hickey?" Brittany asked.

"Dude! That's so completely out of character for you!" Sam said, but he seemed a little impressed.

"Welcome to the club of non-virgins, Hummel, I didn't know you had it in you!" Puck clapped Kurt on the shoulder. "So who was it? I bet it was a teacher, wasn't it?"

"Guys, guys, enough!" Mr. Schue called over the girls' giggling whispers and the boys' cat calls. "Settle down!"

Kurt couldn't believe it. His face was on fire now, and he considered to hide himself by propping his knees up on his chair and hiding his face in them. But if he did that, then everyone would know that it was true, that he _did _have a hickey, and it would cause more madness.

By then end of class, everyone (thankfully) left the room in a hurry, probably to speculate even more on Kurt's mysterious mark. Mercedes approached Kurt while he was still sitting down. She gave one fierce look at Kurt and said,

"We'll talk about this later tonight. You'd better start preparing your lies now, boy."

Kurt sighed and covered his face with his hands when his friends were gone. How humiliating. Exposed like that in front of the entire class. And to be called out by Puck of all people, someone who was an expert of telling hickey's apart from real bruises. The day with Blaine yesterday had been so amazing...until the moment was broken and he'd have to face the music. Finn, thankfully, wasn't much of a gossiper and knew that if he told anyone about Blaine and Kurt sucking face, his throat would've been slit by yours truly. But there was no use of hiding it anymore: Kurt had been getting physical with someone. But now, the question to the glee club was: with whom?

Kurt didn't stop thinking about Blaine all night. Not once did he stop during dinner, or during his shower and moisturizing routine, or throughout his supposed sleep time. When his Dad asked him what was wrong, all Kurt could do was lie and say he was stressed out from homework and exams. Which was true, because it was almost the Christmas break and things were starting to get serious in school. But Kurt was smart and always aced his exams, so it wasn't the central problem in his life right now.

A shadow appeared at the choir room door, and Kurt's head jerked upwards.

There was Blaine, standing in the threshold, staring at Kurt. Kurt froze in his seat. This was the first time he'd seen Blaine all day, since he skipped History. Blaine cleared his throat awkwardly, and a little cutely. Kurt almost smiled when Blaine rubbed the back of his neck. He reminded Kurt of a child who was at loss for words.

"So why'd you ditch me yesterday?" Blaine asked, his fists now in his pockets and his eyes on the ground.

"Wha- because Finn was standing right there," Kurt said, like Blaine should have already known this. "Isn't that obvious."

"You could have told him to fuck off," Blaine's voice sounded like a pouting child. "We were busy."

Kurt scoffed. "I'm not a job you have to do or something. We weren't busy, I told you it was a mista-"

"Well it wasn't for me, okay?" Blaine was almost yelling now, and it made Kurt stiffen slightly in his chair. Blaine stalked over to the piano and sat down, idly plunking his fingers down on the keys. Kurt bit on his lower lip, and after sitting for a long time, he slowly got up go move next to Blaine on the piano bench. He half expected Blaine to get up and leave, but he remained seated.

"Can you play?" Kurt asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I suck," Blaine mumbled, his eyes on the piano.

"I play too," Kurt smiled.

"Good to know."

"Play something."

"Excuse you?"

"I want to hear you play something."

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Usually when people say they suck at something, it means they're actually pretty good."

"When have I ever been modest?"

"When you're not being a jerk and moody."

Pause.

"What do you want me to play?"

"Anything."

"I'm telling you now, Hummel. I'm not good."

"Then...I'll play with you."

Blaine looked over with an incredulous expression. "Say what?"

Kurt snorted. "Pick a song. I'll probably know it."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you know classical pieces?"

"I know some of them. And I," Kurt smirked, "Am an excellent pianist."

"Really now?" Blaine challenged.

"Really."

"Alright then," Blaine looked down at the keys and placed his fingers on them. "Let's see."

Blaine slowly began to play something in the bass clef, and he played it slowly so that Kurt had enough time to recognize it. Kurt giggled softly, eyeing Blaine's fingers. After a short while, Kurt began playing something in the treble clef, his fingers carrying out a lighter and higher pitched tone than what Blaine was playing. Together, the sounds blended perfectly to create the song.

"Ah, you do know this one," Blaine spoke over the music. They continued to play.

"I told you," Kurt smiled.

The piece wasn't particularly long, but it was beautifully played by the boys. It was simple and non-complex, almost like music that a ballerina would dance to. The pitches and harmonies filled the empty choir room, echoing and bouncing off the walls. Kurt tried not to notice when he caught Blaine glancing at him from the corner of his eye, or when their fingers came close to brushing when their hands moved up and down the instrument. The song ended with the boys switching parts, except the parts were now in different clefs. The high and low sounds were swapped, but with the same notes. Slowly, the boys finished their duet and allowed the sound to carry out for as long as it wanted to. When it was completely gone, they sat in silence for a minute, not looking at each other, but at the black and white of the piano.

"I meant what I said yesterday," Blaine said. But no one moved.

"What?" Kurt asked.

"The thing I said about you making me crazy," Blaine said. "It's true. I'm a skilled liar, but I didn't lie about that."

"Oh," was all Kurt could say.

"Whatever," Blaine huffed, his voice suddenly sounding pissed off. He made a move to get up and walk away, but Kurt stopped him, gently grabbing onto his arm.

"Get over yourself," Kurt hissed. "You act as if I committed a crime."

"Why did you kiss me back, Kurt?" Blaine was raising his voice now, and his head whipped around to look at Kurt square in the eye. "If you're always droning on and on about how much of a prick I am, how much of a big bad guy I am, why did you kiss me back? You always, always deny that you don't like me. Apparently, last time was a mistake too, and now this is a mistake as well? How many mistakes can you make with the same person?"

Kurt stood up now. "What did you want me to say? Of course I enjoyed every bit of it, but then what were you going to do? Use that to your advantage and then toss me away like the rest of your lovely suitors? I am not one of those kinds, I already told you that."

"Well, maybe this time, I wasn't planning on tossing you away!"

Kurt said nothing. The boys just stood on opposite sides of the piano bench, looking each other down. Blaine's chest was slightly heaving, like he couldn't control himself. Kurt just blinked and had an expression between incredulous and wonder.

"What?" Kurt asked, his voice smaller than before.

"You heard me," Blaine replied.

"That's...no. You're kidding. You're just saying that so you can get into little ol' Kurt's pants."

"I am not, Kurt. Maybe this is the one time where I actually want to try something different. What did I tell you yesterday? I can't stop thinking about you. You're annoying, quick-witted, and sometimes you roll your eyes a little too often, but you're also really kinda cool and smart and nice."

Kurt flushed. He'd never heard such compliments coming from Blaine - or from anyone, for that matter.

"Do you mean it?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah," Blaine looked down down, rubbing at his elbow like he was lost for words. "Otherwise I wouldn'ta said it."

Kurt crossed his arms. "Are you willing to make this work?"

"I'm willing to try it out," Blaine suggested.

"I'm not a play thing to test out an experiment of yours, Blaine."

"I'm asking you to just please, give me a chance. Try for me. No one ever has."

Kurt licked his lips, letting his arms fall from their crossed position. Then, he walked in between the bench and the piano until he was right in front of Blaine. Blaine looked up, and he swallowed nervously. He didn't know what Kurt was going to do at this point.

Kurt leaned in and kissed him very gently.

It wasn't really a kiss, just a light brushing of the lips together. It was short and sweet, a kiss Blaine never had before. It wasn't wet or sloppy or messy, instead it was gentle and sincere. They pulled away.

"Good?" Kurt whispered.

"Good," Blaine replied, and then he moved in to kiss Kurt again.


	14. Humane

Walking through the hallways knowing that you had a boyfriend was strange.

Most people would be happy or squealing to their friends about it. And it's not like Kurt wasn't happy or anything, he just felt...uncanny with Blaine. Kurt couldn't go rushing to his friends to tell them that he finally got a boyfriend, since no one would ever expect someone like Blaine to be going out with Kurt. His friends probably wouldn't approve of Blaine, and Kurt really didn't need to deal with that now.

Besides, Blaine had made it very clear to Kurt that he wanted nothing serious, that he only wanted to test waters to see if a relationship would work. Kurt didn't know how to feel about this. Despite Blaine's vast knowledge of anything sexual, he, like Kurt, never had a real, official boyfriend before. Kurt didn't know if he should feel flattered or insulted. He was not a guinea pig to try experiments on. But at the same time, Blaine chose Kurt, not some piece of trash on the side of the road.

One night, specifically the night after Kurt and Blaine agreed to try out a relationship, Kurt got at least seven unanswered calls and eleven unread texts from Mercedes. And after eating dinner and taking a shower, the messages and calls just kept on coming. Kurt sighed, and he knew that Mercedes wasn't going to stop until she got to speak to Kurt and get some information. As she promised, she was going to discuss his hickey incident with him later. However, Kurt still didn't have a convincing lie to tell, like Mercedes told him to have.

Kurt answered his phone the fourteenth time Mercedes called him. Right away, he could hear Mercedes sigh. "Where were you? I've been trying to call you all evening."

"Hello to you too."

"So, did you think up of a promising story to tell me?"

"No, and I'm still working on it so I can avoid the truth from the others."

"Why don't you just tell me then?"

"Mercedes."

"What? You know I'd keep all your secrets safe, Kurt. If someone is getting a piece of you, I want to know who. If I know one thing about you, it's that you never just let anyone into your romantic life. Kurt Hummel takes no prisoners."

_Which is why you'd be surprised at who gave me this splotch on my neck,_ Kurt thought to himself.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, Mercedes," Kurt assured, "But the person who...you know - marked me as his territory - isn't exactly a huge fan of everyone knowing that we're together."

"Wait, so you're dating this guy?" Mercedes asked.

"Yes."

Again, Mercedes sighed. "You know that I'd totally be screaming and freaking out, but I can't do that right now since you seem to be telling me that you're dating an invisible ghost."

"I just don't think he'd appreciate me telling you."

"Are you dating someone who's closeted?" Mercedes's voice sounded disbelieving. "I never thought in a million years that you, out and proud, would date someone closeted."

"No, he isn't...closeted," Kurt tried to word his sentences properly, since Blaine was pretty indescribable. "He's pretty out and proud and not afraid to show it, especially around me."

"Oh boy."

"Yup."

"Damn. So what I'm getting from this man of mystery is that he enjoys frequently going down on you and leaving marks in the process."

"No!" Kurt flushed deeply. "Mercedes, he hasn't gone down on me or anything. We haven't gotten very far and the relationship is brand new. The hickey thing was just...one time."

"Brand new, huh?" Mercedes paused. "Does he go to our school?"

"Uh, yes. But he checks in and out. You know, kind of like a vagabond between classes."

"Do I know him?"

"You've seen him before."

"I'm going to be guessing who this person is the entire week, you know."

"I know you are."

"So," Mercedes said, "He goes to our school, I've seen him around but I don't know him personally, and he enjoys bruising you on certain parts of your body."

"Oh my god," Kurt whined.

Mercedes laughed her loud, contagious sounding laugh that when you heard it, it just made you want to laugh as well.

"I'm just kidding, baby," Mercedes said. "I just care about you a lot. I want to know who you're getting involved with, that's all."

Kurt closed his eyes briefly. He didn't want to intentionally lie to his friend, and he _wished_ he could tell her that who he was dating wasn't a dangerous guy and that he would be fine. But that wasn't true, he couldn't tell Mercedes that, mostly because Blaine _was_ dangerous and he _was_ unpredictable. Kurt knew that Blaine wouldn't hurt him. He didn't trust Blaine completely, but he trusted him enough to know that Blaine would never physically hurt him or force him into anything sexual. But emotionally getting hurt? Blaine was still capable of doing that.

"Don't worry," Kurt replied after a few moments. "He's not the brightest, but he has his good moments. You know me. I wouldn't have picked him if I didn't like him."

"You don't get to pick who you fall in love with, Kurt. He's not an apple, for Christ sake."

"Who says I was in love with him?"

Kurt could hear Mercedes smiling. "You fall in love with anything that has two legs, baby."

"Shut up," Kurt groaned. "Sam and Finn were school boy crushes."

"And this new boy isn't?"

"Well, I obviously like him a little more than just a crush. But I don't, you know, love him."

"At least not yet," Mercedes said.

"Whatever," Kurt sighed. "Whatever happens happens."

"You know you can't keep this from me forever."

"I wasn't planning to. You'll probably find out eventually with your gossip super powers."

"Probably," Mercedes agreed, laughing. "Good night."

"Good night, Mercedes."

Kurt hung up his phone, tossing it on his bedside table and burying his face into his pillows. He wished he didn't have to keep secrets from his friends. At the same time, however, he didn't want Blaine to change just for his friends to like him. He sometimes was irked by Blaine's personality but he had to take it all in order to get the good parts, too.

**THE NEXT DAY**

Kurt's lips were sealed in between Blaine's. It was still so early in the morning, earlier than when most students came to school. But Kurt had to drive Finn to an early morning football practice since his car still wasn't fixed, and Blaine was at school early since his mother was mumbling things to herself and Blaine had nothing else to do.

"Is...this, is this going to become a problem?" Kurt asked in between kisses. He and Blaine were standing on the side of the bleachers near the football field, but in a different location than before.

"Hmm?" Blaine hummed curiously, moving his hand to caress the small of Kurt's back.

"This," Kurt tried again, but found himself getting easily distracted. "I feel like there's nothing but physicality."

"Don't you like it when we make out?" Blaine breathed, his lips ghosting across the apple of Kurt's cheek.

"Yes...yes," Kurt sighed. "But we've only done it a handful of times, and I don't want to start like this."

Blaine pulled away slightly. "You know I'm no good with emotions and stuff. I'm a huge mess."

"You're not," Kurt said, lightly touching Blaine's arm. "I just think we're getting off on the wrong boat. I don't even know you that well, Blaine."

They were silent for a few more minutes.

"It's like I can't contain myself around you," Blaine looked down at the ground. "You're just so gorgeous and hot, its like I need to be next to you all the time."

Kurt smiled sweetly. "You know I don't want to move too quickly, Blaine."

"I know, bummer," Blaine joked. Kurt pushed him in the arm and rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Hummel," Blaine continued. "You know that I said I'm willing to try this out. I won't race to get into your pants, but I can't...help myself sometimes."

"That's okay," Kurt reassured. "I know what you mean."

"You do, do you?" Blaine raised an eyebrow suggestively. Kurt flushed and looked to his side.

"Whatever," Kurt said. "I'm just saying I don't want this entire thing to be based on kisses and sex. There's an emotional factor involved, too. That's what relationships are all about."

"I get it," Blaine replied. "I just suck with...being humane."

Kurt's eyes darted across Blaine's face, scrutinizing his features. Blaine looked a little worried, but it was still glossed over with that hardened, natural-bad-boy stare. Like a painting with both light, pastel streaks of paints with darker, more jagged patterns painted over top of them.

"I can show you," Kurt almost whispered. "You're not inhumane, you just don't have much experience with, well, people."

Blaine looked up at him.

"I'll show you."

"You'll show me," Blaine repeated.

"Yes."

For a brief moment, Blaine looked kind of pissed off and Kurt thought he was going to just walk away. But then his expression calmed down and he spoke.

"Alright," Blaine said in an unsure tone. "I'm just saying. It's gonna take a hell of a lot to teach me anything."

And then he pulled Kurt to him using his arm, giving him one long, solid, final kiss before breaking away and heading off towards the direction of the school, since class was about to start soon.

_AN: I am going to Ohio on Saturday to meet Chris Colfer! I'm so excited! I bought him a little mug that says "Keep Calm and Carry On" on it. I know that's a popular mantra but not many people know that it's actually related to English history, and since everyone knows that Chris is obsessed with royalty and Britain, I thought it would be a nice present. I also wrote him a letter, and I'll give these things to him at the signing. Once I get back from Ohio (on Sunday, but it might take me a couple more days to write the next chapter) I'll tell you all about it!_


	15. The Transition Theory

_AN: Okay everyone! As promised, I am going to tell you about my experiences with Chris Colfer! My family and I went, we drove about 10 hours just to get to the signing, and it was in a tiny little shop with barely any elbow room. BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT. I had a present for him (a keep calm and carry on mug, because he likes english history and royalty) and a letter. My knees were shaking but I met a group of amazing girls while waiting in line, and we talked for about an hour about Glee, Starkid, Leaky Con and more. I could see him through a tiny window at the end of an outdoor hallway, and I was about to start screaming and crying. I can hear his high pitched voice getting closer and closer and then BAM suddenly I'm right in front of him and it goes down like this:_

_chris: Hi sweetie! How are you? (signs book)_

_me: I'm good! Um, I got this for you! (puts gift bag on the table)_

_chris: (picks it up and starts searching through the gift wrap) Oooooh! What is it?_

_me: It's a mug, and there's also a letter in there, but you can open it at home if you want!_

_chris: Oh thank you, thank you! It was nice meeting you!_

_me: You too! Thank you so much!_

_...and then I ran out and started crying. It felt so weird talking to him, it felt like I was at home watching an internet video or whatever. But he is GORGEOUS in person, his eyes are really bright and he's got a ton of freckles and of course, the lovely hair. It just touched my heart that he didn't rush me, he took his time talking to me, and he smiled the whole time. HE LITERALLY STARTED SEARCHING THROUGH THE GIFT BAG TO LOOK AT THE PRESENT unlike most celebrities who would just cast it aside. His photos on the internet DO NOT do him justice, he is really really handsome in person. He was very sweet and for the record, I'm half way through his book and it's really good so far! He also shook my aunt's hand and gave my dad a thumbs up! My mom got a ton of pictures of him and I and I hope he likes my gifts. I also heard on twitter that he communicated with a deaf girl in sign language. I am so so happy I got to meet my hero/idol, he really inspires me._

_LEST WE FORGET JULY 28 2012! (': Also, this is a really short chapter! Sorry, I'm saving some more stuff for later!_

"You're home late again," Blaine's mother, Angela, said. She was lying on the couch as usual, the lights dimmed down so that the television screen was the only thing projecting light. She was half-dressed in her office clothes, her button-up blouse starting to become crooked an wrinkled while one of her heeled shoes dangled off her foot.

"Can't you even change out of your clothes before you stink up the place with rum? Christ," Blaine sighed. He picked up empty glass bottles that surrounded the couch and tucked them under his arm, walking to the kitchen and throwing them away. Cleaning up was something that a mother did, not for a son to do for his drunk mother.

"Did you buy eggs like I told you to?" Angela slurred, swirling a clear substance around in a cup.

"No."

"Well, I told you to."

"Why don't you get it yourself? You are the mom, after all."

"I work hard enough these days. You're lucky you don't have an office job, so shut your mouth."

Blaine huffed out air through his nostrils, annoyed. "Bitch," he muttered underneath his breath as he made his way to his room.

"Go to bed, faggot," Angela replied, her voice scratchy.

Blaine slammed the door to his room, unbuckling his belt and letting his pants drop to the floor. He pulled the jeans off of his feet and flung them into his hamper. Blaine walked to his dresser in his underwear, searching for something comfy enough to wear to bed. He settled on some tattered but loyal sweatpants. It was almost one in the morning.

It felt strange, because usually when Blaine was out late (which was every night) it was because he was screwing one of his sex friends in the back of a car or in a cheap motel room. But this time, he had a boyfriend.

What an odd word to say.

Blaine plopped down on his bed and stared at his ceiling. Boyfriend. Whoever thought that Blaine Anderson would get himself a real, live boyfriend? And a gorgeous one at that. One with nice eyes and a killer ass and a captivating voice. A little annoying, yes. Blaine didn't mind, since he knew Kurt was only annoying when he was pissed off. But then again, Blaine could find several ways to do the latter.

He was confused, however, when Kurt said that he could "show him" how to be humane. What did that even mean? Blaine wasn't a kind, gentle person, and he didn't know how Kurt could show him otherwise. You could be humane without acting graceful and compassionate. Blaine knew what was right from wrong, although he often did the wrong sufficiently. Blaine was his own person. He didn't want anyone, not even Kurt, showing him what to do or who to be.

Blaine looked back on his life. He was a miscreant teenager who came from a broken home with a drunk mother and a non-existent father who was God knows where. Kurt was someone who wore designer clothes and though Blaine knew nothing about Kurt's personal life, he was sure that his relationship with his parents was much better than his own. Why would Kurt even want to consider going out with Blaine? Blaine understood a one night stand or something, but commitment was something he never came across. He didn't know how long this was even going to last. Probably not very long since Blaine was restless.

But Blaine just had to admit that he liked being around Kurt. When he was near him, it made him feel many things. One being that he felt the extreme need to guard and protect him, and another being he needed to have Kurt's mouth on his all the time. There was something different about Kurt Hummel, and Blaine didn't know what yet. Blaine had invented something he liked to call "The Transition." It was more of a theory, really. Blaine predicted that at least once in everyone's lives, they would have a moment of serendipity or a revelation about something that would change their lives forever. An example could be a homeless person winning the lottery, or a doctor discovering a cure for cancer and gaining riches. It could either be a good or a bad change, as long as the change was drastic.

He didn't remember when he'd invented this theory, but it was something that Blaine believed in. Blaine thought that he had found his transition years ago when he got involved with alcohol and smoking, but the only difference that he felt was that he was more tired and lost in himself. The art of losing himself, as he always called it, where he was at peace with himself the most, usually alone in his room blasting Pink Floyd and smoking a Marlboro black cigarette. Everyone could have a moment of losing themselves, and everyone could have a transition moment. The possibility of Kurt Hummel being Blaine's transition never crossed his mind as he drifted off to sleep that night.


	16. Innocent and Unspoiled

_AN: THE KLAINE BOX SCENE WAS RELEASED EVERYONE! Finally, after 8 months! Go watch it on youtube if you haven't watched it! But I also heard that there's gonna be an episode in season 4 called "The Break Up," and this has me worrying for klaine._

Kurt couldn't tell Burt.

There was no way. Burt would positively snap if he even got once quick glance at who his son was dating. Burt didn't mess around with punks. He didn't even like seeing them hanging out at the mall, with their spiked hair and their stench of smoke and pot trailing behind them. So unless Blaine was secretly a saint disguised as James Dean, Burt wouldn't hesitate to turn into the incredible hulk and chase Blaine through his front door.

It was awkward seeing Finn around the Hummel-Hudson house, now. Ever since Finn walked in on Kurt and Blaine's little meeting underneath the bleachers, things just haven't been the same for them. They hadn't had a full on conversation, and it's like every time they made eye contact, Finn suddenly became more interested in the patterns on the carpet or the ceiling. It annoyed Kurt, and he wanted to bring it up, but how does one do just that? Kurt knew that it must have been ten times more uncomfortable for Finn that it was for him. Though he was sassy and didn't take crap from anyone, Kurt was still innocent and sweet. Seeing his step-brother making out with the wanted criminal of McKinley wasn't exactly something Finn expected.

Kurt sighed heavily, another day passing by, and decided to sleep on it. Maybe he could get Finn to talk to him eventually, but right now he didn't feel like sneaking over to Finn's bedroom at midnight to talk about his love life. And he was sure Finn felt the same, too.

**THE NEXT DAY**

"FIGHT! Hit him harder! COME ON!"

Kurt could hear various chants from across the parking lot. His eyebrows furrowed, wondering what could be causing the sound. It was the end of the school day at McKinley, and everyone was starting to go home. Kurt was just about to get into his Navigator when he heard the shouts. He spotted a large crowd of students forming a circle. Inside the circle, commotion was going on.

Kurt walked across the parking lot, his bag still strapped over his shoulder, to get a closer look. Kurt never promoted or encouraged violence, but he wanted to figure out what was going on anyway. Fights at McKinley were brisk and short-lived, so seeing a full one was like seeing a butterfly in the winter.

But Kurt froze when he recognized one of the voices violently yelling from inside the circle.

Pushing his way through the circle of people, Kurt managed to maneuver himself so that he was right in front of al the action. Sure enough, he saw Blaine and a jock known as Rick "The Stick" Nelson, some gangly hockey player with a red mullet and a strong passion for tormenting the glee club.

Kurt didn't know why he just stood there and watched for a couple of seconds, but he felt like there was nothing he was able to do at the moment. He watched as Rick shouted some insults along the lines of "short butt-boy with hair that looks like pubes," and that's when Blaine launched himself at Rick, almost sitting on top of him and punching him square in the jaw. Rick managed to land a few punches himself, but Blaine showed no signs of pain or fear. He was a machine right now: he was only required to do one thing, which was beat the shit out of Rick.

When Rick landed a strike to Blaine's eye, that's when Kurt cut in. Everyone was still chanting in unison around him. Kurt knew that it was pretty dangerous to get involved in a fist fight this intense, but he wasn't going to let Blaine make an idiot of himself - or get more injured - any longer.

Kurt dropped his bag and ran up behind Blaine, placing his hands underneath Blaine's underarms to try and drag him away from the scene. Blaine twisted aggressively in Kurt's arms, his elbow missing Kurt's chin by inches. But when Blaine turned around fully to see who was touching him, he froze and locked eyes with Kurt. Blaine looked both steaming angry and concerned at the same time.

"Hey!" someone called from the crowd. "What's that homo doing?"

"We wanna see the rest of the fight!" another shouted.

Something shifted in Blaine's eyes, and then Blaine was turning around again and yelling,

"Shut the fuck up and get your asses home! It's done!"

People whined, and Rick scoffed.

'What's wrong, Anderson?" he said. "Are you too shy to fight in front of your little ass-casket here?"

Blaine's face turned red again, and he got up off the ground and aimed his fist at Rick's cheek.

"Blaine!" Kurt panicked when he noticed that Blaine was no longer present in his hands.

Once again, Blaine stopped himself. His fist was hanging mid-air in front of Rick's face, while the other was clenched in his hockey jersey. Blaine hung his head low, harshly blew out some air from his nose, and with all his might, shoved Rick away so far back that he stumbled backwards into the circle of people. He gave Rick one, fierce look before turning around swiftly, speed-walking right past Kurt and out of the circle. Everyone's eyes were either on Kurt or on Rick. Kurt's face heated up, but he just grabbed his bag from off the ground and exited the circle along with Blaine, giving one quick bitch-glare to everyone around. He didn't look back to see if anyone was staring at him, even though he could feel so many pairs of eyes on him.

Blaine was walking too fast, and eventually Kurt lost track of where he was going. He waked behind the school, trying to search for Blaine, when all of a sudden, two arms shot out from the corner of the school that Kurt was about to turn and grabbed him. Before Kurt even had time to scream, he found himself being pushed up against the hard, brick, exterior wall of the school and surrounded by someone dressed in a black jacket.

"What is wrong with you?" Blaine snarled. "You could have gotten yourself knocked out!"

"W-what are you-" Kurt began, but Blaine cut him off.

"You have balls," Blaine sighed, shaking his head. "Not only did you have seconds away from becoming a pile of skin and bones, but you probably just shouted to the world that you're dating me. You put yourself in a lot of shit, Hummel."

Blaine lifted himself off the wall and away from Kurt. Kurt reached out and grabbed a hold of Blaine's arm, stilling him.

"Are you ashamed of that?" Kurt asked him, a little anger in his voice. "Does it bother you to know that we're together? Because I thought that's what you wanted all along."

"I didn't say that," Blaine said. "But you're going to have a hell of a lot more issues with your neanderthals once they find out we're sucking face."

"And why is that any of your concern?" Kurt scowled.

"Because I'm not going to be there every single time to watch over your ass, Kurt!" Blaine was almost shouting know, and his face was screaming to Kurt, _why don't you just get it?_

"Don't you see?" Blaine continued. "Together or not together, I just _need_ you to be safe all the time, and once _they _know that you're dating someone like me, they won't hesitate to rip your brains out."

Kurt froze, recoiling a little bit when he understood the importance of these words. Nobody really felt such a strong, overwhelming yearn to protect him before. Kurt never heard such words. Was all of this true? Did Blaine really feel this way? Kurt could obviously tell that he'd upset Blaine with his silent response, because Blaine's face hardened and he turned away, about to leave. Maybe confessing these words had embarrassed him. But Kurt started to come to his senses, and he chased after Blaine and stopped to an abrupt halt right in front of him.

"Hey," Kurt said softly, and he placed his hands on Blaine's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that's why you were upset. I was just trying to help."

Blaine sighed, and grabbed Kurt's hands and took them off of his face. He didn't look angry anymore, to Kurt's relief, but Kurt frowned internally when Blaine took his hands away. He guessed he wasn't ready for intimacy yet, still a work in progress.

"Sorry," Blaine muttered, one of his hands still holding onto Kurt's. "I just feel the need to do all these fucking things at once and that's what gets me into all types of shit."

"You know I can take care of myself," Kurt said. "I'm not a baby."

Blaine nodded. Kurt wasn't sure if he fully comprehended what Kurt was trying to say to him.

"What happened? Why were you in that fight?"

"It's no reason," Blaine looked away.

"No it isn't," Kurt pushed. "Why did you get into that fight with Rick? Are you hurt? Did he get you ba-"

Kurt was silenced when Blaine's lips came crashing down on his a little too hard. Kurt gave in for a few seconds, but he eventually squirmed away and placed his hand on Blaine's chest when Blaine tried to dive in for another kiss. Once Blaine's pupils were blown out and lust filled like now, it was hard to get him to stop.

"Hmm," Blaine hummed, wrapping an arm around Kurt and pressing his lips to the pale neck in front of him. "You're so hot when you ramble, baby. You're hot all the time."

Kurt pressed his lips into a thin line, trying his best to conceal all the sounds he so desperately wanted to make. "Blaine...we're in public. Someone might see us."

"Then let em' look," Blaine whispered, and kissed a spot on Kurt's collarbone through his shirt. Kurt shuddered.

"Seriously Blaine," Kurt huffed. "Stop. I don't want you getting into another fight again."

Blaine sighed disappointedly. "Fine."

"Are you ever going to tell me why everything just happened back there?" Kurt asked.

Blaine sighed. "He was making fun of you."

"What?" Kurt's eyes widened.

"I was just walking to my car when he came out of nowhere and asked if I was dating you. Then he started calling you these names that clearly came out of a kid's joke book, and I don't know why it bothered me so much but it did and I just..."

Kurt noticed Blaine's clenched fists and gritted teeth. Kurt suddenly felt a little bashful that Blaine had defended him, but he didn't want Blaine to get hurt over it. He got called names like that all the time.

"Blaine... Kurt began.

"I'll walk you to your car," said Blaine, changing the subject. They walked slowly together from out of the corner of the school and back towards the parking lot. Their hands just barely brushed, and every time Kurt felt Blaine's skin skim over his own, he felt a rush of nerves bundle in his throat.

"Aren't you cold in that?" asked Kurt, gesturing to Blaine's leather jacket. "It's dead winter."

"I'm sort of used to the cold," Blaine said, not meeting Kurt's eyes.

"Oh," Kurt said simply.

"I'm sorry I'm such a dick all the time," Blaine said out of nowhere. "I don't know why you're with me. You could have just taken the quick fuck and left it at that. I'm too much to handle sometimes. Like a fucking bratty kid that needs to be looked after by his mother."

Kurt opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. He didn't have anything to say, because while Blaine did in fact act like a dick sometimes, he just couldn't find himself to leave. Blaine's confident and cocky shell seemed to melt away into his insecurities right now.

"It's okay," Kurt said after a while. "I mean, I can't be all that easy to put up with either."

They reached Kurt's car, and Kurt could feel an arm gently guiding him backwards until he was crowded up against his car door with Blaine directly in front of him. _What is it with him and this position?_ Kurt thought to himself.

"You're so much easier to put up with than people like them," Blaine said, referring to everyone else at their school. "So much easier than this whole town, than this goddamn world."

Kurt closed his eyes when Blaine's warm hand cupped the side of Kurt's neck. Blaine was so close to him now that he could feel Blaine's breath ghosting across his face.

"Innocent," Blaine breathed, his lips only inches away from Kurt's. "Unspoiled."

Kurt opened his own eyes and gasped softly when he saw Blaine's flaxen-emerald round ones. They stared at him and only him with such fiery intensity that it made Kurt's head whirl.

Blaine's voice was husky when he whispered into Kurt's ear, "And yet and I still can't seem to figure out something as complex as you."

Kurt's heart hammered rapidly in his chest at these words. His thoughts were incoherent, he didn't know what to make of Blaine's words. Blaine moved in and softly kissed Kurt, swirling his tongue around gently in his mouth. Kurt sighed and humiliatingly released a small whimper. But of course, Blaine didn't seem to mind one bit.

"I don't understand you," Kurt whispered against Blaine's mouth.

Blaine shook his head. "You're not supposed to."

When Kurt went home that night, lying on his bed and running his fingers over his neck where Blaine had kissed, he tried to think how someone like him could be considered complex when he was dating the most misunderstood, secretive person of them all.

_AN: Here's another AN. I finished TLOS! I thought it was really, really wonderful. As someone who had always loved fairy tales and magic growing up, reading this story was like a giant flashback. Chris really is a gifted writer, and I'm not just saying that because I like him. It was genuinely a great story. What I loved about it was that it was able to take popular fairy tales that we all grew up with and twist them in a way so that they didn't change completely, but they did give you a new perspective of the stories. I also loved getting to hear the sides of the stories that were silenced, such as why The Evil Queen is the way she is and why Goldilocks broke into the bears' house. The Evil Queen's story especially touched me. It reminded me of Elphaba's story from Wicked, because Elphie was just misunderstood and didn't mean to cause real harm, just like The Evil Queen. The only thing I didn't really like about the book was that it seemed just a tiny bit rushed at the end, but only a little and it didn't take away from the amazing story. I HIGHLY recommend The Land of Stories! Please go buy it and read it if you haven't already! It's quite the fantasy trip._


	17. Offer

_AN: I'm so stressed out about Klaine right now. That's all I can say._

There's a scene in the famous eighties film _Sixteen Candles_ where Jake is waiting outside the church for Sam after her sister's wedding, and Jake is sort of just standing there in the background, almost tiny and unnoticeable, but of course, Sam can spot him like a lantern in the darkness, just leaning against his car and smirking as he waves at her. This is just like that scene - Kurt came out of the last glee club meeting before Christmas break, and there was Blaine. He was just propped up against his beaten up car, a cigarette trapped between his lips and a hand scratching through his curly hair. He was dressed in all black and he drove a black car, so he looked like ink spilt on a sheet of paper due to all the snow that was surrounding him. Blaine was much easier to spot then Jake in the movie.

Kurt gulped because he's wondered why Blaine is waiting there like that, just staring off into space and not noticing the filter on his cigarette getting bigger and bigger. Blaine never comes and visits Kurt after glee and he looks almost creepy, just staring and staring and smoking and smoking. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his leather coat that when every time Kurt sees, he thinks it going to rip or spontaneously combust after being worn so many times. Blaine eventually looked up, caught sight of Kurt, and snapped out of the strange gaze that seemed to be taking over him. He half-smiled with the cigarette still in his mouth, and Kurt guessed that this was his cue to start walking over to him.

Cold puffs of air appeared in front of Kurt when he breathed, and he could hear the soft crunch of snow underneath his boots. Kurt was so glad that school was ending for two weeks after this week, that way he could stay inside his warm house without having to get dry skin and a cold nose.

Kurt appeared in front of Blaine, and his steps slowed down a little bit. He took in all of Blaine, because it's like you need to adjust yourself when you walk into Blaine's zone, his aura. Blaine flicked his stub of a cigarette on the ground, stomped on it and ground it into the snow. The cigarette looked like a squashed bug, and while Kurt didn't find smoking attractive, he certainly and secretly thought it looked painfully gorgeous when Blaine did it, even though he hasn't seen Blaine smoke often.

"Hey," Kurt said. "What are you doing here?"

Blaine pulled out a small strip of gum from the pocket of his jeans, and he popped it into his mouth, chewing loudly as he talked. He looked down at the snow and almost blushed. "It's embarrassing."

"What did you do?" Kurt's condescending tone started to rise in his voice.

"I fell asleep in my last class and everyone decided it would be hilarious if no one woke me up," Blaine snorted. "Literally, I was almost there for an hour and a half - and then the fat assed janitor decided to come in and wake me up by spraying my desk with some cleaning shit or whatever while I was still passed out - _don't laugh, Hummel!_ - so then I just got up and left before you were finished."

"God," Kurt shook his head. "I don't know what's worse - you sleeping in class or the janitor assuming you were apart of the desk."

"Fucking assholes...it got in my damn eye and I was blinking for like, five minutes non-stop," Blaine said, and Kurt giggled. Blaine smiled.

"Glad to see that my pain makes you laugh so much," Blaine said.

"At least you eye didn't turn pink. Having one pink eye while the other isn't is the worst."

Blaine looked down at the ground and let out a short, low laugh, exposing his straight, white teeth doing so. Kurt swallowed when he saw this, because Blaine just looked so bashful and beautiful, with his long eyelashes and his laugh. This was the Blaine Kurt never saw often, and it was always so brief.

It grew silent for a few minutes before either of them said anything. Blaine cleared his throat and licked his lips.

"You want a ride home?"

Kurt flushed. No one had ever offered him a ride home before, and coming from Blaine, a guy who knew nothing about romance but a lot about getting into pants was like a moment in history being made.

"I-I already have my car," Kurt stammered. "I was supposed to drive with Finn-"

"Is his car still not fixed?" Blaine asked.

"No, it should be finished being repaired by tomorrow. That's what my dad said."

"Then let him drive himself home. I'm sure he won't mind."

Kurt wanted to say yes so badly to Blaine's offer, but he didn't want to ditch Finn with the car. Kurt turned around to scan the parking lot with his eyes and found his own Navigator with Finn standing next to it. Kurt sucked in his lips, contemplating.

"Wait right here," Kurt said to Blaine, and then took off towards his car, being careful not to slip on the snow and ice.

"Hey," Kurt said to Finn. It was still a little awkward between the boys now, but slowly, it was getting better and the tension wasn't as bad as before.

"Uh," Finn began, "Do you mind if I borrow your car?"

"What for?"

"I'm going to Puck's this afternoon, but since my car isn't finished yet and Puck doesn't own a car, I've got no ride to get there. I can drop you off at home."

"Well, actually, I'm going..." Kurt trailed off. He needed a good lie to tell his step-brother so that he wasn't suspicious. "I'm...going over to Tina's house and she's gonna give me a lift to her place."

"Oh," Finn said. "So, you don't need me to drive you home? And can I please use your car? I promise Puck and I won't damage it."

As if it was rehearsed, Puck appeared and walked over to the boys. "Don't worry, Hummel. I won't shred your precious navi to pieces."

Kurt gave both Puck and Finn his best bitch glare, raising an eyebrow. "If either of you so much as place a _fingerprint_ on my car, I will strangler you both with my Marc Jacobs scarves with a smile painted right on my face."

"SurethingthanksKurt!" Finn smiled as he opened the door to Kurt's car and got in. The engine roared to life and Puck waved at him.

"Thanks, hickey-boy! We owe you!" Kurt cringed at the nickname Puck was calling him all week.

As Kurt was walking away, he could hear Finn say to Puck, "That was a lot easier than I expected."

When Kurt returned to Blaine, and after Kurt's precious and hopefully-not-damaged-to-be navigator pulls out of the parking lot, Blaine asks, "Where is he going?"

"I convinced him that I was going to Tina's, so he's just going to take the car to Puck's," Kurt replied.

"Shit," Blaine laughs, looking impressed. "I never thought I'd see the day where that happened. You offering up your car to Finn?"

"Listen," Kurt held up his hand to silence Blaine. "That was a tough decision, and I shall punish myself later on for doing what I did. Now take me home."

_AN: This will be continued in the next chapter. I'm just too upset about Klaine to be writing the rest right now. If you are on tumblr or twitter, you'd know why._


	18. Different Surroundings

_AN: I'm sorry that I was so upset last time. I was originally going to attach this chapter along to the last one to make it longer, but then I read some glee spoilers and it made me very upset so all I wanted to do was just cry and sleep. If you don't know the spoilers I am talking about, it just has something to do with Klaine and you know...breaking up. I know that Klaine is endgame and that they will always find a way back to each other but I was just really sad last time. Anyway, here is the continuation to last chapter._

"There you go. Safe and sound at home, as promised," Blaine said, pulling into Kurt's driveway and turning off the car. Without the rumbling engine and the sound of the concrete and ice ground beneath them, the car got quieter and voices echoed around easier.

The drive home was surprisingly free from hardship. While Kurt didn't really enjoy the smell of old smoke in the car, he and Blaine seemed to have a pretty normal conversation that didn't involve anything sexual (for once.) Kurt could see that Burt's car wasn't in the driveway. He was probably still at the shop working.

"Thanks for the ride," Kurt said. "It was a lot less terrifying than I expected it to be."

"You're alive, aren't you?" Blaine smirked.

Kurt looked at the glove compartment in front of him, smiling. The conversation he'd had with Blaine was nice. Like Blaine was a different person that who he appeared to be. There was always going to be that lingering tint of badness to him, like a natural smell that never seemed to go away. But think of that bad-boy act as a big, fat, brightly-colored tattoo drawn on your wrist. For most of the time, the tattoo is visible and draws a lot of attention to itself. Whether you like it or not, its there. But occasionally, you'll wear a long sleeve shirt when it's cold out to protect yourself. That's when that tattoo gets covered up, and you can focus on other parts of the person, like their eyes or the way their dimples come out when they smile. Kurt didn't know why he'd thought of this, and it was kind of a stupid analogy to be honest, but it was the best way he could put it into words.

"I guess I should just head home," Blaine spoke after a while. "Or you know. Doing something productive so I don't die of boredom."

"Do...you wanna come in?"

This was something Kurt never thought he'd ask. Ever since meeting Blaine, he knew right away that maybe letting someone like Blaine into his house wasn't the best idea. But that was before he even really got to know Blaine. And while Blaine wasn't at the top of Kurt's list of "top ten people who I would trust in a dramatic situation," he knew Blaine wouldn't do anything atrocious to hurt him or his home.

Blaine looked as if he'd never heard such words in his life. You could tell he was trying to suppress his surprise, but underneath his solid expression was a little bit of disbelief, excitement, and nervousness. Blaine had never been invited into someone's home before, and it wasn't hard to guess why. But it was mostly because he didn't have very many friends, or people that he liked. This would really be the first time that he was invited into someone else's home.

"Uh," Blaine muttered, staring out at the road in front of him, "I don't know. Visiting other people's houses for fun without me getting something out of it isn't exactly the kind of thing I do."

"What do you mean 'get something out of it'?" Kurt asked.

Blaine shrugged, and casually said, "You know. Sex, cigarettes, getting to use someone's phone for free. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a 'lets-have-fun-and-paint-each-others-nails-at-a-sleepover-party kind of guy."

Kurt almost cringed at Blaine's choice of words, but he ignored it. "Well, I'd like you to come in. You might not be getting any of that in my house, but maybe you'll actually get a sense of the term "boyfriend" and "understanding people" so you choose to accept my invitation."

Blaine didn't even notice Kurt's harsh tone. Instead, he smiled and turned to Kurt. "This isn't some way of trying to get into my pants, right?"

"What?" Kurt said. "No!"

"Are you sure? Cause I really wouldn't mi-"

"Are you coming in or not?"

Blaine thought for a minute. "Aren't your parents gonna kill a miscreant like me stepping on their property? Because I know you didn't tell them you had a boyfriend."

Kurt stiffened. "I, I didn't-"

"Whatever," Blaine interrupted. He wasn't looking at Kurt, and his expression was completely blank, like someone had pushed an off button on Blaine and now he had no emotions. "I get it. A goody-two-shoes sweetheart like yourself wouldn't dare tell his parents about me. Don't take it personally. All the other virgin kids like you that I've had before were like that, too."

A wave of hurt washed over Kurt, and he stared at Blaine while Blaine continued to look at nothing, his face looking like he wasn't upset at all. But instead, his face was bare, wiped clean of emotion, and that is what scared Kurt the most. Blaine must have became so accustomed to being labelled as a tough, bad boy, dangerous and a bad influence that you could call him any name and it wouldn't bother him. Kurt was familiar to this - he'd been called so many names by the football team that he didn't flinch when something was shouted at him from down the hall. But underneath it all, it still hurt Kurt just a tiny bit to know that people assumed things about him. Surely, it had to be the same way for Blaine...right?

After a moment of silence, Kurt said, "Come inside. My dad is still working at the shop and he won't be home for a while."

"Shop?" Blaine asked.

"My dad owns a tire store," Kurt replied. "He repairs cars and sells tires and all that. He makes quite a profit."

"Damn," Blaine said, sounding impressed. "I had no idea. You know all about cars and stuff? An ice queen like you?"

Kurt cocked an eyebrow. "Yes. In fact, there's lots you don't know about me."

The next thing Blaine knew, he was taking his boots off, shrugging off his leather coat and standing in front of the threshold to Kurt's home. Right away, Blaine was overwhelmed. He didn't let it show, but it was obvious to say that Kurt's house was a lot nicer than his own. Right away when you stepped in, there was a black, curvy coat rack and a rug to place shoes on. The floor was wooden, and if you looked further into the hallway, the wooden panels turned into cream colored tiles. It screamed "american family."

"You can just place your coat on the rack," Kurt instructed, snapping Blaine out of his examination of the house. "I just needed to but a coat rack, as old school as they seem. Finn just kept leaving his wet coats and sweaters all over the ground..."

Blaine tuned out as he continued to make his way through the house with Kurt at his side. He just couldn't help but wonder - what would his house look like if it were in a neighborhood like this? What if his mother started to work harder again, increasing her salary and thus, creating more money? What if for once, Blaine didn't have to be ashamed of where he lived or where he was from?

"...Blaine?" Kurt's voice, clear as a bell, spoke. "You okay?"

"What?" Blaine asked. "Yeah."

The boys continued their journey into the house and up the stairs. Kurt's house had a very modern vibe to it with some touches of flare and vintage items. It was obviously Kurt's doing, because Blaine was pretty sure that a man who works in a car shop wouldn't be installing red velvet cake colored carpets in his house to "contrast nicely against the taupe walls," as Kurt said. And he knew that Finn lived with Kurt (was he his cousin? Or his brother? Blaine couldn't remember) So there was no way that he would have cared about what his house looked like. Blaine wondered if Kurt and his mother ever shopped together in ikea for stupid things like that. Blaine wouldn't know how it felt.

"This is my room," Kurt said a little shyly, pushing open his door. He stepped to the side to allow Blaine to walk in first, and he slowly did.

Blaine looked around. Kurt's room was...well, it was lovely, much more pristine and well-kept than any room Blaine would have. Blaine's room was probably the nicest room in his entire house, because it was tidy and not what most people expected it to be. But Kurt's room just had everything - the furniture, the friendly and hospitality, and the random outbursts of him. There was a huge, queen sized bed pushed against a wall with maroon covers, a tall bookshelf stacked with various books, picture frames and mini statues, a closet, and a little vanity with different bottles assorted on top of it. This was a room Blaine could never afford or fit into.

Kurt watched Blaine quietly. Blaine looked like he was a lost animal, unfamiliar in his surroundings. Blaine just stood there, placing one hand on the soft comforter on Kurt's bed. He rubbed his hand in circles, feeling the material beneath his skin. It looked like Blaine was testing, or experimenting with something new.

"Blaine?" Kurt asked.

"Your room," Blaine said without turning around, "It's nice."

Kurt gave a small smile. "Thanks."

It was quiet for a few more moments before Blaine turned and flopped down on Kurt's bed. Kurt shook his head, watching as this person whose mood swings resembled leaves changing colors in the autumn lay sprawled across his bed like a puppy dog. Blaine's black t-shirt started to ride up a little bit at the hip, and Kurt fixated his eyes on the wall.

"So," Blaine said, getting up into a standing position, "Let's see what kinds of things you do in here."

Blaine sat down in the chair in front of Kurt's vanity. "You use all this shit on your face?"

Kurt shrugged. "Not all of it. It helps."

"Helps what?"

"Me look less like a zombie."

"Please," Blaine sighed, picking up on of the bottles and popping open the cap. He took a whiff of it and scrunched up his nose. "You'd still be gorgeous even without all this."

Kurt felt his face heat up, but he'd gotten more used to it ever since he started hanging out with Blaine. "What does my skin routing have that interests you?"

"Do you have any lube?"

"_No_," Kurt said sternly.

"Oh shucks," Blaine swung his arm dramatically like he was participating in a square dance. "I thought I was gonna get me some."

Kurt shook his head yet again. Blaine got up from the vanity and shuffled over to Kurt's book case.

"What do you read?" Blaine asked, starting to pick up a copy of Charles Dickens's _Oliver Twist._

"I'll read anything, but I like classics mostly," Kurt said, taking a seat on his bed so that he was watching Blaine from the behind.

Blaine scanned through the unripped and undamaged books that lined the shelves. "Hmm."

"What?"

"Nothing. Our libraries are very similar, is all."

Kurt raised his eyebrows. "You read?"

"Surprised?" Blaine half-turned around, smirking at Kurt.

"If by read, do you mean amateur porn?"

"Hell no," Blaine said, placing _Les Miserables_ back on the shelf after scanning through its many pages. "I was never interested in all that crap. Why watch someone else have sex when you can do it yourself? Besides, all the people in those movies are so overly fit that it makes me want to puke."

Kurt didn't know what to say to this, considering he'd only watched one porn video and he didn't end well, meaning Kurt squealed and slammed his laptop shut within the first five minutes of the film. Thus, that was how Kurt discovered what rimming was, but that's a whole other story.

"This is my favorite," Blaine said, and pulled out_ The Great Gatsby._

Kurt smiled. "I like that one too. Even though Gatsby kind of stalked Daisy for a few years. That part kind of creeped me out."

"He was just misunderstood, you know?" Blaine said, looking down at the small, short book in his hand. "He was so rich and threw big parties every night, and everyone thought he was so cool and mysterious and all that shit that everyone wants to be. Dreams to be. But all he wanted was Daisy. I felt bad for him, you know? People thought he was one thing, when he was really another. And for what? To die in the end of the book, and no one even really cared to go to his funeral."

Kurt's facial expression got much softer as he listened to Blaine's calming, low voice talk so passionately about some fictional character in a book. It saddened Kurt a little, to know that Blaine was sort of trying to relate to a book this way. But Blaine's voice was like a cool, streaming river on a hot day, especially when he spoke about things like this. It was as smooth as velvet, even when it was hoarse from smoking or yelling. It was a voice Kurt wouldn't mind getting lost in.

Blaine placed the book back on the shelf, and his eyes came across a small picture in a faux gold frame. The picture looked old, from around the early nineties, with a woman sitting on a patio with a baby in her lap. The woman had long and straight brown hair and a big smile. The baby in her lap was looking away fro the camera and off to the side, but still had a huge, goofy smile that only a child could convey. Next to that picture, there was another with a picture of Kurt, Finn, a burly man who Blaine guessed was his dad, and a woman with short hair.

"Who's this?" Blaine asked. Kurt got up off the bed and stood next to Blaine, both of their faces in level with the shelf.

"Who?"

"Her," Blaine pointed to the picture of the woman with short hair. Her arm was around Kurt's dad, with his hand placed on her knee.

"That's Carole," Kurt said. "This picture was taken last year at Christmas...oh god, don't remind me. She and my dad made us all wear these hideous sweaters with snowmen on them, and let me tell you, those sweaters could have been Rachel Berry's dream outfit."

"So, wait, is she your mom?" Blaine was confused.

"She's my step-mom," Kurt explained. "My Dad married her not too long ago, actually. She's Finn's mother."

"Is this your mom? I mean, your biological one?" Blaine's eyes shifted back to the picture of the woman golding the baby. Kurt smiled, but it was small and quick.

"Yeah," Kurt said. "She died when I was eight."

A weight felt like it had settled in Blaine's stomach. He had no idea that Kurt had lost a parent. One look at Kurt's confident and definite glow could make you think that he didn't have any problems going on in his life. Blaine was wrong.

"Oh," Blaine swallowed, because what do you say to that?

"It's fine." Kurt didn't look upset or on the verge of tears. Instead, he smiled at Blaine. "I get it a lot every time someone finds out. I miss her everyday, but it was a long time ago. I'm glad my dad has someone like Carole now. She'll never replace my mother, but I love Carole and she's great to have around, especially if you're in the mood for pancakes on a Sunday morning."

Blaine didn't dare say to Kurt that he knew what it felt like to lose a parent. He didn't tell him about his dad leaving, or his mother being non-existent in the house, or how he had to grow up and take care of himself from a very young age. How could he?

"I'm sorry," Blaine said after a while, both boys still looking at the picture. "I had no idea."

"It's alright," Kurt insisted, his voice kind and reassuring. "Like I said, it happened a while ago."

Blaine sucked his lips in. There were a million things he could think of to say to Kurt, especially after being in his room and looking through his personal belongings. There was still so much to know about this vast canvas known as Kurt Hummel, and Blaine had only gotten to see just a pint-sized proportion of him. Blaine knew exactly how he felt. There was probably more that he and Kurt had in common than he thought of.

Blaine came across a small show-choir ribbon on Kurt's dresser. He snorted at it, picking it up and reading what was written across: SHOW CHOIR CHAMPIONSHIP 2010.

"That's from our first year as a glee club," Kurt said with a little bit of embarrassment in his voice. "It was a while ago. Back when we sucked and had plenty of drama. Well, we still have that now, but we're able to pull through much...cleaner. Besides, that was the Regionals ribbon when we came in third place. We've conquered that now."

"Don't you have Regionals coming up?" Blaine asked. He flipped the ribbon upside down and tried not to look unimpressed in front of Kurt. At least they did a good job at their Sectionals performance when Blaine saw them in the McKinley auditorium.

"Yes," Kurt replied. "After Christmas, we have about a month or so to rehearse and then we compete."

Blaine nodded, carelessly tossing the ribbon back onto Kurt's shelf.

"Don't you sing?" Kurt asked, which made Blaine's head whip upwards in surprise. He barked out a short and loud laugh.

"What would make you think that?" Blaine questioned. Kurt shrugged, looking like he just knew something that was never said.

"I don't know," Kurt turned around and wandered around his room as he talked. "You just look like the kind of guy who would. Rough-exterior guy who knows how to play piano and goes off on his own. Probably owns a bunch of unused instruments and secretly belts out a tune every now and then when no one is looking. Come on, Blaine, there's tons of hipster-villainy teenagers in lots of movies like that. They show up everywhere."

Blaine crossed his arms, smirking, but with intensity in his eyes. "You're a good guesser, aren't you?"

Kurt stopped walking around after looking at Blaine. "Yes."

"There's no way I'd join a club like the glee club."

"Why, would it bring down your rep?"

"No. I don't care about that. But can you imagine someone like me sitting in a room full of rejects, singing show tunes and trying to scrape up some glory by winning competitions no ones cares about?"

Blaine caught a glimpse of the brief look of hurt on Kurt's face, and he sighed, reaching his arm out to wrap around Kurt and pull him close to himself.

"Sorry," Blaine said. "I didn't mean it like that."

"So," Kurt said, "What I'm getting from this is that you...sing? Were my predictions precise?"

Blaine rolled his eyes, but kept his arm around the curious and questioning boy. "I guess. I'm not good."

Kurt smiled the tiniest of smiles. "I would love to hear you one day."

Blaine snorted. "Yeah, and I'd love to see the day when Rick Santorum gets strapped to a NASA rocket and gets blasted into space, but that won't happen, am I right sweetheart?"

Kurt shook his head, ignoring Blaine. "No. I really would love to. I bet you can sing really well. One day, trust me."

Blaine stared at the person in front of him. Kurt was always so determined and willing to find out information about him and probably everyone else around him. He was like this with Blaine since they first met. From when Blaine scratched his arm in a fight near his house and Kurt wanted to know about it, to when Kurt urged him to play the piano duet, Kurt always knew how to figure things out. Most people would find it annoying or nosy.

Blaine, surprisingly, found it a strange but certain turn-on.

Leaning down, Blaine pecked Kurt on the lips before unwinding himself away from him and moving to sit on Kurt's bed. "Maybe one day, angel face. But that day is not today." Blaine lay back on the soft, giant bed so that he was looking at the ceiling. Hesitantly, Kurt lay next to him and stared up at the ceiling as well. He could make out the tiny bumps on the ceiling, almost wishing that they were stars so he could watch them with Blaine at his side, as weird and improbable as that sounded.

But Kurt could keep his thoughts to himself, so he let the silence settle, completely aware of Blaine's warmth next to him.


	19. The Weird and The Wonderful

_AN: I know that I'm usually a pretty quick updater, but I just finished a show that I was in yesterday (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I played Ms. Teavee and Grandma Georgina!) So hopefully I will be able to update much faster, but I also want to take my time with this story since I have many possible directions for this story to go in that I haven't picked out yet. Also, the title of the chapter was inspired by a lyric in "Bennie and The Jets," but I changed "they're" to "the."_

There were five days left before Christmas day, and it was the time of the year when Carole started to get frantic in the house. She was constantly dashing back and forth between the kitchen and the living room, but mostly just spending most of her time in the kitchen. Now that the Hummel's and the Hudson's were combined, more family came over for the holidays, which meant more cleaning and more food to make. Carole was lucky to have Kurt, the ultimate assistant, to help her cook, clean, and nag Finn to get off the couch and do something useful. Kurt's house was full of stressful yet exciting buzz, a warm holiday glow and vibe that coated the entire house like in a cartoon.

The same could not be said for Blaine.

When you think the word "Christmas", you picture a big house covered in a thick layer of snow with blinkering lights and the smell of sugary goodies wafting from the windows. But you do not think of a slightly-below-average sized house with a crooked backyard gate and a bare front lawn. You don't think of no spirit, utter solitude, and definitely not the stench of many different kinds of alcohols mixed together in a red solo cup, placed perfectly in the palm of your mother's hand.

This was normal for Blaine.

The past couple of holidays, Blaine's mom stopped trying to attempt to bring what little family she had and instead spent her summer's, holidays, vacations and any free time on the couch or screaming into her phone while drunk. On Christmas, Blaine would be cooped up inside his room getting as high as a kite and blasting the Christmas holiday station on his radio so loud that you could hear it from next door. Tripping out on various substances while listening to "White Christmas" was certainly the psychedelic adventure.

So Blaine had to admit, when Kurt told him about his busy plans over the holidays, Blaine was a little confused as to why he had so many.

The boys went out for a drive one day, taking Blaine's ratty but functional car. Kurt needed to pick up a few things from the mall as a last minute Christmas gift for his father, and since the boys hadn't really gone out in public together, Kurt thought that maybe this would be a good start.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" Kurt asked Blaine after he had dragged a reluctant Blaine inside of a men's clothing store. Kurt was scanning the shelves in search of something nice to get for his father.

"You know, the usual stuff," Blaine shrugged, trailing behind Kurt. Many people in the store looked towards Blaine and Kurt, Kurt's back turned towards them as he continued to inspect the shelves and find bargain prices. Random shoppers thought it was odd to see a couple like Kurt and Blaine, because one was completely different from the other. Blaine gave each of them hard, cold, daring stares before Kurt finally picked something out and turned back around.

"Like what?" Kurt asked. He picked out two dress shirts, a belt, and four different ties. They looked completely wearable for a dad who worked in a car repair and tire shop, but at the same time, the clothes looked as if they could only have been picked out by Kurt himself. Kurt was quite the guy when it came to anything fashion, music, and of course, picking out gifts.

"I don't do much during the holidays," Blaine replied. They went up to the counter, payed for their things, and headed out of the shop and into the mall.

"What about family? I know I have millions of family members coming over, I mean, who doesn't, but for some reason I can't imagine you..."

"Imagine me sitting by the fire in a warm fuzzy sweater, drinking eggnog and opening gifts sent by my loving family?" Blaine offered, and Kurt bit his lip.

"I'm not mad," Blaine chuckled. "I get it if that's people's first instinct about me. You're kinda right, though. I don't do any of that shit."

"No?" Kurt said.

"My family and I are exactly BFF's with Jesus, if you were wondering."

Kurt was extremely curious now, but he knew better. Prying everything all at once from Blaine would overwhelm him and cause him to get angry or shut down completely. Kurt held his tongue as they continued to stroll around the holiday infested mall.

Eventually, when the boys were done shopping, they headed back into Blaine's car and began to drive back into the icy roads. Blaine had suddenly gotten awfully quiet, when he was normally so talkative when he wasn't in a bad mood. The look on his face didn't indicate that he'd been upset, so Kurt wondered if he had done anything to offend Blaine.

As fast as lightning, Blaine's hand flew towards his radio in his car, and with the flick of a wrist, music immediately came blasting from the speakers. Kurt jumped a little, and Blaine turned it down a few notches. The song that was playing was Elton John's "Bennie and The Jets," a song Kurt recognized from his childhood whenever his mother used to play it as she cooked or cleaned. Sometimes, he'd walk into the tire shop and see his dad playing it as he repaired a car or washed a window.

Blaine started to gently hum along to the words. _"Hey kids, shake it loose together, the spotlight's hidden somethin' that's been known to change the weather..."_

Kurt smiled and tried to break the tension. :I told you I'd get you to sing in front of me one day."

Blaine snorted. "This is barely singing, sweetheart. If this is what you call singing, your joy club or whatever it's called must be screaming."

"This is a good song," Kurt sighed.

"I guess," Blaine replied. "He's the king of all gays, after all. Or at least after RuPaul or something."

"Come on," Kurt playfully pushed at Blaine's arm, "Elton John is way more gay than RuPaul could ever be. He could be our big, flamboyant uncle."

Blaine smiled with one corner of his mouth, but didn't say anything. Soon, the only things that were making noise was the road beneath them and the song.

"_She's got electric boots, a mohair suit, you know I read it in a magazine..."_ Blaine continued to half whisper, half sing. He slightly bobbed his head up and down along with the piano and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

"So," Kurt tried again, "Um, you didn't exactly tell me, what are your plans for the holiday break?"

Blaine shrugged. "I don't really do anything except the stuff you already know about me. Am I obligated to do more things with you?"

"Fine," Kurt said, turning his head away from Blaine. "I was just asking."

"You know I didn't mean it like that, calm down," Blaine said. "I was just saying."

Suddenly, Blaine pulled over into the parking lot of a nearby plaza that was surprisingly empty during holiday season.

"What are we doing?" asked Kurt.

"I need a smoke," Blaine said, reaching into his pocket and fishing out a carton half full with long, white sticks. "Sit back, relax, and enjoy some second-hand poison. I haven't had one all day."

Kurt knew that it was a bad idea to stay in the car with Blaine, but he just couldn't seem to look away as Blaine cupped his hand around the cigarette and lit it, inhaling his first drag and blowing the smoke out the window. It sort of fascinated Kurt, despite the fact that he knew how bad it was to smoke.

"You might get sick from those," Kurt said a little nervously as he watched Blaine crank his seat back so he could lie backwards and prop up his knees on the steering wheel. Blaine could scare anyone just by looking them in the eye, but here, he looked especially intimidating, like he could melt someone just by sitting there with his cigarette stuck between his lips.

"You think I don't know that?" Blaine said, cracking one of his closed eyes open and staring at Kurt. He took another long inhale on his cigarette, and he held it for what seemed like an eternity, before his body went lax and he allowed the smoke to escape. Blaine moved his foot up and down in slow movements to match the tempo of the music. He closed his eyes and sighed, holding the cigarette between two fingers and letting it hover over his lips between each exhale.

Kurt watched. There was something so compelling about Blaine's dusty stubble, his messy hair and dark clothes, his calm and relaxed demeanor as he continued to fill and empty his body with smoke. His long, dark, full eyelashes splayed out beautifully on the tops of his cheeks, and with a pose like this, he could have easily been on the cover of an old, 60's rock album.

"My mom never does anything with me for Christmas, anyway," Blaine said out of nowhere, his eyes still closed and "Bennie and The Jets" still playing away.

"What?" Kurt's eyebrows furrowed.

"She's a lazy old hag. How is she supposed to do anything with me when she can't even get her damn ass off the gin-soaked sofa?"

Kurt pressed his lips together and sucked them in. He was intrigued and surprised that Blaine unexpectedly started to talk about what Kurt had asked him earlier. But at the same time...well, he was a little terrified. Blaine was known as mysterious and self-kept at school. Kurt was about to enter some places of Blaine that no one had ever experienced before. Kurt felt like he was trespassing on private land: if he went to far in, someone might catch him and tell him to leave.

"You don't do anything special on the holidays?" Kurt asked, and Blaine chuckled, amused by the innocence in Kurt's voice and face. Such a good person like him didn't need to know what his life felt like at times.

"Haven't for a long time," Blaine replied after humming a part of the song. "We don't need to. There's nothing to do, anyway."

Kurt blinked, trying to understand what Blaine was saying. "Can't you go do something with your dad? I know my dad and I always find something to do, even if it's just watching a football game I don't care about."

Blaine licked his lips, blew out some more smoke, and opened his eyes a little, so that he looked sleepy. "He's gone."

"Gone?"

"Yeah. I reckon he's probably in an old trailer or something, fucking up a prostitute. Maybe he's in jail, or dead. Or who knows," Blaine paused to giggle, "Maybe he's the president of some big company. You never know what can happen."

Kurt was taken aback, and he struggled to not ask so many questions. His heart shuddered for Blaine's story that he knew no details to. But it didn't stop it from being a little heart breaking. "What happened?"

"He just left one day," Blaine stated casually as he tapped the excess ashes off of the cigarette. "He and my mom never liked each other. I guess he could tell I was gay since I was a little kid, so maybe that's one of the five thousand reasons why he left. Whatever. That bastard can enjoy his Christmas. I hope he's got a fresh TV dinner."

"Blaine," Kurt whispered, "I'm so-"

"It's okay," Blaine reassured. "It's like that thing with you and your mom, it happened a long time ago. I don;t really think about it that much." Blaine was kind of lying, not completely.

Kurt was quirt after that for a few minutes. The song ended just as Blaine blew out his last puff of smoke. But without even touching the radio, the song started to play once more. Blaine kissed his teeth and sighed. "Damn radio is always broken. Either that or there's an asshole ghost in my car." But Blaine didn't turn off the radio, he just let the song play again for a second time.

"If you're not doing anything over the break," Kurt offered, clearing his throat so his voice didn't sound hoarse from being silent for so long, "You can always... you know, come over and do something with us."

Blaine rose and eyebrow. "Are you kidding? I mean, your house is great, but I think your folks would call the cops the moment I stepped foot into it."

Kurt shook his head. "My dad is a little hard to please sometimes, but-"

Blaine leaned across and shut Kurt up by kissing him lightly on the mouth. "Your innocence is really delicious," Blaine whispered against Kurt's lips, and Kurt shuddered.

They kissed some more, but their position was a little awkward considering they were sitting down in a car.

"Come here," Blaine said, reaching for Kurt's waist. Kurt hesitated at first, but he unbuckled his seat belt, and with a bit of help, he soon found himself straddling Blaine's waist in the driver's seat. Kurt blushed madly. He'd never done anything like this before, and Blaine's low and sexy laugh at his embarrassment didn't help him feel better.

"Quit worrying," Blaine whispered, pulling Kurt closer to him. "You're fine."

Their lips met in a fiery but slow kiss, Kurt's hands coming to rest of Blaine's chest as Blaine firmly slid one of his hands down to grasp Kurt's ass. Kurt gasped into Blaine's mouth, his eyes shooting open, but he eventually relaxed when he found that Blaine wasn't going to push him any further. Kurt might be a teenage boy with hormones, but he wasn't about to let his first time be a quickie in an old, beat-up car.

"You never answered me," Kurt got out in between kisses.

"What?" Blaine breathed, clearly wanting to do nothing more than to just make out with Kurt. Which, by the way, Blaine was confused about. Usually, when he was done having sex or making out with another guy, he would lose interest or get bored of them right after. For some reason, with Kurt, it was like he enjoyed getting to kiss him or touch him every time.

"Um, the whole Christmas thing. You're welcome to come over."

"You're funny."

"I just don't want you to be bored or alone on Christmas."

This was the first time that Blaine had ever heard these words said to him in his life. His lack of friends caused him to not have anyone invite him over. Not like he cared. But he still didn't know why a pure hearted, innocent, naive boy like Kurt would offer such a thing.

Blaine kissed Kurt's nose. "You sure are a little saint."

"It's the holidays," Kurt shrugged, still being held by Blaine. "If your Christmas at home is as worse as you tell me it is, then...I'd like to, you know. Be there."

Kurt gave a shy smile that just looked so beautiful, Blaine couldn't help himself. He kissed Kurt once more, getting a kick out of the way Kurt let out a short moan. The boys pulled away, and their faces were so close together that their eyelashes almost merged together. Blaine looked into the ever-changing, colorful galaxies that were Kurt's eyes, and how could he say no?

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, Hummel," Blaine laughed.

"I think I can handle it," Kurt whispered.

They stayed there for quite some time, kissing until their lips were fully chapped, not even noticing that Elton John kept replaying over and over.


	20. New Feeling

_AN: This chapter is mostly just a smutty filler, so don't worry, there's more of a story coming later in the next chapter when Christmas comes. (In the story, of course, not in real life.) I have written smut before, but I'm more of a tasteful, slow, not-too-dirty kind of smut. This is my first attempt at writing the opposite of that, and I admit that I was kind of nervous doing it, but I hope it turns out okay. The only reason why I included this chapter is because I wanted to practice writing that kind of stuff. Also, random side note, I saw Wicked for a second time! It was just as amazing as the first time!_

Kurt did not know how he ended up on his bed, lying down on his back with a mane of curly hair twirled in his fingers and the weight of another body being pressed onto his. If you told him a few months ago that he would be making out with a miscreant while his family was out shopping for more holiday supplies, he would shudder and say "Why would I do that? And why, of all people, would I pick some leather wearing, rugged up, trashy guy? Who dates cliche troublemakers like that?"

Well, apparently, Kurt did.

All that was happening before this was normal. Blaine had come over to Kurt's house (and he openly admitted that he liked Kurt's house more than his own. Kurt asked Blaine why, but received no answer.) The whole afternoon was just like a chain reaction of things failing and then leading up to one of Kurt and Blaine's many make out sessions. First, Kurt reprimanded Blaine for playing with the ingredients when Kurt tried to make a batch of holiday cookies for when his family came over in a few days, which resulted in both boys screaming and laughing as they poured flower and sugar all over each other's hair, eventually both slipping and falling to the ground, their faces flushed and their smiles big. Next, after cleaning up, Blaine claimed that there was never anything good on television because "comedy is dead and all the romantic shows either have vampires in them or their sex scene aren't graphic enough," so watching TV was out of the question.

And when they finally and inevitably ended up in Kurt's bedroom, it wasn't hard to see what came next after that.

So there they were, Kurt's blue and grey Alexander McQueen cardigan on the ground with Blaine holding himself up by the elbows over Kurt. Blaine was melding his mouth over Kurt's slowly and sloppily, like they had all the time in the world and nothing needed to be frantic. Kurt could just feel his insides and the underside of his skin heating up like a kettle of hot water starting to bubble, and he never thought that it would be because of someone like Blaine.

Kurt combed his fingers through Blaine's corkscrew-curly hair, down the back of his neck and to his shoulder blades. A calmed down, more sensual make out session was something Blaine never experienced with other people. Whether he was kissing or having full on intercourse, things were rough, loud, and quick. With Kurt, everything seemed to slow down a couple notches and though Blaine didn't understand why this was, he still enjoyed it much more than with other people. With Kurt, everything was controlled yet still exhilarating. He was able to actually taste Kurt's lips and feel his body when it wasn't sped up or rushed.

Blaine lowered his elbows and was half-laying on top of Kurt so that he didn't drop his entire weight onto him. Kurt's breath was coming out in little quick pants since this was all so new to him. Blaine knew that he could cause many people, boys and girls, to moan or melt just at a simple touch that Blaine gave to them. It wasn't bragging, it was just human nature; pure facts. But for once, for the first time in all of Blaine's years of being sexually active, he finally found another person who could make _him _falter at the touch, make_ him _speechless during a kiss.

Blaine moved his mouth down to Kurt's pale neck, moving the fabric of his white long-sleeve shirt out of the way so that he could reach the skin. He didn't take of Kurt's shirt, however, as his lips continued their journey down Kurt's chest and onto his torso, he gently nudged it up to see more of Kurt's exposed body. Kurt let out a shaky sigh when Blaine kissed a place above his hip, then lower, then lower, then-

"W-wait," Kurt half-whispered, a little flustered. He sat up on his elbows so he could look at Blaine properly, who was now almost off the bed, his hands caressing Kurt's legs. Kurt didn't know if it was from Blaine's clammy hands or just the way he was feeling, but Blaine's hands felt plenty hot on his jean-clad legs.

Blaine looked up at him, resting his chin on Kurt's stomach. Kurt gulped, watching Blaine watch him.

"Um," Kurt got out, "We...are we doing that?"

Blaine started to stroke his thumb along the gold stitches on Kurt's jeans, which were on his inner thighs. "I want to," Blaine whispered huskily, making Kurt shiver. "God, I want to. But if you don't, that's cool."

"Really?" Kurt asked, slightly surprised. He didn't think Blaine would be one to let something like this slide so easily.

"Didn't I tell you?" Blaine spoke into the fabric of Kurt's jeans. "I'm not that kind of monster."

Blaine returned to kissing Kurt's abdominal area, dazing Kurt and leaving him anticipated for more. Kurt buried his head deeper into the mattress since he wasn't lying down at the top of the bed where his pillows were. He could feel Blaine's hot breath on him, even through his jeans.

"Hey, uh," Blaine breathed out.

"Yeah?"

"I know we said no sex, but..."

"But what, Blaine?" Kurt sat up now again on his elbows. Blaine looked up at him with lustful eyes, and in one quick motion, he leaped back up Kurt's body so that his mouth was aligned with his, and kissed him hard on the mouth, emitting a small squeak from Kurt. They both fell backwards onto the bed, and they kissed for a few minutes before Blaine pulled away and whispered something.

"Can I blow you?"

Kurt managed to successfully contain his gasp. He didn't want to let his nervousness and his surprise show, because really, he's heard the term "blow job" a million times. After all, he does go to school with immature teenagers. He wasn't a baby - he could hear certain dirty words without running off and telling the teacher like a third-grader who still thought that the word "stupid" was bad for the ears.

It was the act of said word that made Kurt timid.

Just imagining that. Imagining his boyfriend kneeling before him and taking him into his mouth, feeling heat and wetness surrounding him. It was something Kurt had never experienced before. Kurt opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to look for an answer, but in the end he couldn't find one to say with his words, so he just slowly nodded with wide eyes.

Blaine smirked, giving Kurt one more kiss before shimmying back down his body. Blaine's knees were on the ground while his torso was still on the bed so that he was kneeling right in front of Kurt's legs. He placed his hands on Kurt's hips for a second before placing a kiss right below Kurt's happy trail. Blaine's hands reached up and unbuttoned the three little silver buttons holding Kurt's pants together. The buttons created a V shape once they were parted, and in that V space. Blaine could see a glimpse of Kurt's dark grey underwear. Blaine licked his lips, and Kurt was watching the entire time.

Blaine seemed to notice this, and he inched Kurt's jeans down just a tiny bit so that a peak of his skin was showing. He kissed and nuzzled his nose into Kurt's inner thigh. "Just relax," Blaine whispered. "Lay back."

Kurt obliged, letting his elbows fall as he stared up at the ceiling with flushed pink cheeks. He could feel everything.

Meanwhile, Blaine slowly took off Kurt's tight jeans one leg at a time, first the right and then the left. He'd never seen this much of Kurt before. Though Kurt was pale and had lightly colored, thin hair on him (unlike Blaine, who was tanned and had darker hair on him) Blaine's mouth was watering and he hadn't even started yet.

Blaine pushed open Kurt's legs more for easier access. Blaine placed his hands on the insides of Kurt's thighs, eliciting a few giggles out of Kurt.

"That tickles," Kurt laughed lightly.

Blaine smiled at the adorableness of this boy lying before him. It was strange, Blaine never thought of anyone as adorable before. Usually, the only words in his vocabulary while taking part in a sexual favor were "fuck," "hot," and of course, the array of pet names. But with Kurt's pink face and his flustered words and his complete lack of any kind of sexual experience and his breathy laugh just deserved to be called adorable.

And, you know. Hot.

Finally, after what seemed like a million years of waiting in his nerves, Kurt felt Blaine hook his fingers into the waistband of Kurt's underwear and pulled it down. Kurt immediately felt both a draft from the room and Blaine's eyes just staring at him, scanning him over and probably silently judging. Kurt lay completely still, staring at the ceiling and biting on his lip.

Then, he heard Blaine start to talk.

"I can't believe you're a virgin."

Kurt sat up slightly again. "W-what?"

Blaine chuckled, hiding his face in Kurt's stomach while he laughed, sending vibrations into Kurt's skin. "You're fucking gorgeous, you know that? Everything about you."

Kurt swallowed, trying to contain both his relief and his arousal. Kurt watched as Blaine grabbed ahold of his legs and placed them over his shoulders for easier access. Kurt could feel Blaine's strong, hard shoulder muscles underneath his calves. Blaine's eyes flickered up to meet Kurt's briefly.

"Ready?" Blaine asked.

"Uh-huh," Kurt's voice had a quiver, his breath coming in fast and shallow. He nodded frantically at Blaine.

"Hey," Blaine placed a hand on Kurt's hip, rubbing it soothingly. "Like I said, just lay back and relax."

Before Kurt could say anything, he felt his member being engulfed by Blaine's very warm, very practice mouth. Kurt's elbows gave out from underneath him, and he hit the mattress with a groan.

At first, Blaine started off small, only swirling his tongue around and moving his lips calmly. But then, after a while of listening to Kurt's whimper, he started to take more of Kurt's head and shaft into his mouth. Blaine was enjoying this probably more than he should, and he began to moan brokenly around Kurt.

And as for Kurt...well. He had quite never felt something like this before.

He could feel his whole body tense up at this pleasure that started to turn him into a ragged-breathing mess. He could feel Blaine's soft, cushiony tongue lick the underside of his shaft, and Kurt gasped.

"O-oh God," Kurt exhaled, bringing his hand up to push his sweaty bangs out of his eyes and up onto his forehead.

Blaine's hands clutched at the sides of Kurt's legs, his head only beginning to bob up and down slightly. Then, Blaine did something he thought he'd never do: he reached up without looking and took on of Kurt's hands, guiding it to his curly hair. Blaine hated it when people touched his hair when he was giving them oral. But Kurt was so squeaky clean and brand new to all of this; Kurt was his _boyfriend_, and Kurt was taking him so, so well for a first time blow job.

Kurt felt his fingertips touch a head of beautiful curls, and he could feel how soft they were and how easily they intertwined with his fingers. Both of his hands travelled down and started to play with Blaine's hair. He didn't start violently yanking or pulling hard on Blaine's hair. Kurt never understood why people would do that. It made the whole thing look like a battle for dominance, and not to mention painful. Kurt closed his eyes, still whimpering and breathing heavily as he combed through Blaine's hair. Blaine hummed appreciatively around Kurt's length at the gentle gesture.

Blaine started to suck with more force now, making Kurt's breath hitch. He tightened his legs around Blaine's shoulders, the backs of his feet digging into Blaine's shoulder blades. Kurt's chest heaved.

"Oh my god," Kurt moaned. "Oh god... Blaine,_ Blaine_."

Why did Blaine feel so good in this moment? What was this strange effect that Kurt had on Blaine that so many others didn't? Why does doing something as simple as this cause Blaine to become turned on so easily, yet doing more advanced things with other people causes Blaine to become bored and weary?

Kurt's entire body felt like it was a mug with hot liquid being poured into it. Sooner or later, he was going to over flow and Blaine would have to be there to catch him.

"B-Blaine," Kurt said in a hoarse, scratchy voice. "U-um, Blaine, honey, I'm gonna come."

He tried to gently push Blaine's head away from him, but Blaine shook his head stubbornly and stayed put, sucking extra hard for these last few seconds. Kurt nearly screamed, arching his back and grabbing onto the sheets with his fists.

And then, like a wave crashing over the sea, Kurt finally let go, gasping loudly once more. His eyes flew open, everything swimming around him, and then his orgasm coursed down wards and into Blaine's mouth. Blaine took it all in, swallowing every last drop of Kurt. Kurt didn't know what come tasted like, but he sure hoped that his own didn't taste so bad.

Blaine lifted his head off of Kurt's length with an audible popping noise, and he licked his lips, utterly enamored with Kurt right now. Kurt was still trying to catch his breath, looking up at the ceiling. Blaine kindly pulled Kurt's underwear and jeans back up his body, and then crawled up the mattress so he was on top of Kurt again.

Kurt blinked and stared into Blaine's eyes before craning his neck and kissing Blaine. Kurt tasted himself on Blaine's tongue, a salty, strange sensation, but it wasn't a terrible taste. He wondered what Blaine would taste like. Maybe he could find out sometime soon.

"How was that?" Blaine asked, nuzzling his nose into Kurt's jaw.

Kurt smiled. "Wow...I mean...it was..."

Blaine chuckled into Kurt's neck. He didn't need to hear anymore because he knew that Kurt approved.

"Thanks," Kurt said a little awkwardly. Is that what you were supposed to say to someone after they sucked you off?

It seemed that Blaine was reading Kurt's mind, because Blaine burst out laughing like he heard the funniest joke in the world, and he rolled over so that he was beside Kurt. He pulled Kurt into a long, deep kiss.

"You're hilarious," Blaine laughed, pretending to wipe away a tear.

Kurt smiled, rolling over onto his side so he could face Blaine properly.

"You know," Kurt said, his voice sounding a little bit sleepy. But Blaine didn't blame him, after everyone's first blow job, orgasm, or sexual relation, it was normal to get a little bit tired. After all, Kurt's body had used up a lot of energy just a few moments ago. Kurt continued to speak. "At first I was dating you for your looks, but now there's another thing I can get from you."

Blaine laughed. "Oh. So you weren't dating me because of my charisma and shining personality?"

Kurt shrugged. "I'm guilty." And then he leaned in to kiss Blaine chastely.

"You know," Kurt could feel his face heating up again, "Maybe, one day, since you did it for me, maybe I can...I can try it on you?"

Blaine never though he'd hear Kurt say those words, but the visual of Kurt sucking him off sounded more than appealing.

"Yeah," Blaine said with hunger in his voice. "I mean, yeah. That'd be great. Only if you want to, though."

Kurt placed his hand on Blaine's jaw, leaning in for a kiss. "I want to."

Kurt didn't even hear his door open. There was a deep voice at the door.

"Kurt?"

Kurt's eyes flew open faster than the speed of light, and he sat up, bewildered when he saw his Dad standing in the door frame.

_AN: Yeah, like I said, I'm getting used to writing dirtier smut. This is still kinda soft, and I'm trying my best not to be a prude. I hope I will get better at this later._


	21. Two Conversations

_AN: What did everyone think of the first episode of Glee? I thought it was okay, I like Kate Hudson and the Klaine scene was very sweet (but not enough of a goodbye for me.) Sorry about the lack of updates, I've kind of been having a rough time lately in terms of family, two of my choirs at school started up again and I also got sick, but I kind of want to space out my chapters more so I can have more time to think about what's going into the chapters or to make them longer._

"Dad..."

"Kurt, what the hell is this?"

Burt was certainly not expecting to walk in on his son, sprawled across his bed while locking his lips with a curly haired kid whom he had never seen before. Burt knew that his son's heart was primed for romance, but even though he thought his kid was romantically aware enough to write his own victorian romance novel, he wasn't the kind of boy who dated.

"Dad, oh my god, please let me explain," Kurt began to frantically explain. Blaine had shot up from where he was laying beside Kurt.

"Who are you?" Burt asked a little harshly to Blaine. He'd never seen this kid before, and naturally, any good parent would begin to question when they walked in on their son making out with a stranger.

Blaine kept his face still as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked up to Burt confidently. He held his hand out, gave a half smirk and said "Nice to meet you sir. I'm Blaine, Kurt's boyfriend."

Kurt shot Blaine a glare. _Why did he have to say that right to his face?_

Burt ignored the outstretched hand in front of him and the somewhat cocky grin on Blaine's face. "Boyfriend?"

Kurt just sat on his bed, dumbfounded and speechless. He knew he'd have to tell his dad about Blaine eventually, especially with Christmas so close, but he never thought he would find out like this. Didn't mid-makeout-session walk-ins only happen in bad teenage flicks?

"Kurt," Burt said sternly, looking like he was trying to contain his temper, "I think we need to talk alone. Now."

His eyes shifted to Blaine, and Blaine shrugged, shoved his hand into the pocket of his jeans and walked out of the room to give Burt and Kurt some privacy. Kurt gulped as his dad slowly took his time to take a seat on his vanity stool. Burt sighed, took his cap off, and looked at his son.

"Talk."

Meanwhile, as Blaine climbed downstairs, he looked up to see a short-haired woman in the kitchen unpacking some groceries and storing some rolls of brightly colored wrapping paper in the bottom cupboard. She caught Blaine's eyes and looked half startled, half curious.

"Hello," the woman said to Blaine, frozen in action with a carton of milk clutched in one hand and a bag of Christmas ribbons from the dollar store in the other.

Blaine moved forward into the kitchen. He placed two of his fingers to his forward and flicked them outwards towards the woman, a gesture of greeting. "Hey."

The woman seemed surprised at Blaine easy going introduction, considering he had never seen him before and that she knew he was not one of Finn's friends.

"Are you a friend of Finn's?" asked the woman, moving to the fridge to place the milk inside. She knew the answer to this question, but asked just to make sure.

"Nope," Blaine said, smiling. "But I do know him."

"Oh," she said simply, wishing this boy would be more elaborate. "May I ask who you are?"

"I'm Blaine," Blaine clarified. "I'm guessing you're Kurt's step-mom, right?"

"Yes. I'm Carole," Carole said. "Are you a friend of Kurt's?"

Blaine took a seat in one of the chairs in the kitchen. "I guess you could say that. A friend whom he makes out with, sure."

This caught Carole off guard. Kurt had a boyfriend? Why didn't he tell anyone about it? Carole inspected the boy sitting in her kitchen. He sat with one leg crossed over his knee in a relaxed pose. He wore mostly dark clothing - dark, straight cut jeans with a dark grey t-shirt and a few thick, leather bracelets on one wrist. He had messy hair and bright eyes, and a smile that both looked charming and a tiny bit egotistical. Carole, for some reason, always pictured Kurt pining after the muscular, jock type of boy...yet, here was this rocker-chic/class clown kind of guy, with a handsome face but a less "prince-charming" kind of vibe.

"Kurt has a boyfriend?" Carole asked. "I had no idea."

"I'm here for the job," Blaine gave a fake little bow from where he was sitting. "I applied and started working about a month ago."

Carole chuckled, but then pasued. "A month? Really? I'm...surprised that Kurt didn't tell us about that."

"I guess it's people's natural instinct to not tell people about bad things going on in their lives," Blaine said, continuing to smile.

"What does that mean?" Carole was suspicious now.

"I'm no adorable Clark Kent, is all I'm saying," Blaine explained, placing his elbow upon the table in front of him so it dangled off the edge. "Sorry. I don't mean to come off as rude. All I'm saying is that you probably weren't expecting a guy like me to randomly come down your stairs."

Carole laughed. "You've got that right. Would you like anything to drink?"

"Kurt, this is insane," Burt preached to his son from back upstairs. "So you're telling me this was the guy you've been indecisive over? This guy you feel confused -"

"Okay Dad, you don't have to turn it into a soap opera monologue!" Kurt sighed, flopping down on his bed.

"Sit up, I'm talking to you," Burt warned. "This is serious. This is the kid that you tell me has gotten in trouble with all sorts of things before, isn't it?"

"Yes," Kurt said.

"I never thought you'd be the kind of kid to get into that act. I mean, sure, it's easy to picture some blonde girl who eats nothin' but water sitting on his lap, but Kurt... it's just weird. And this kid is bad news. He's got an arrogant face and he reeks of smoke."

"Dad, you don't understand. You may think you know him, but you don't," Kurt attempted in a desperate plea. "I was hesitant at first with him, but he's different with me. He's not the Ren McCormack he claims to be. He's a lot nicer."

"You say that now," Burt sighed, rubbing his knee, "But what if this kid takes advantage of you? Look, I know I'm not your mother or nothing, and talking to me about a guy will never not be awkward. I just want what's best for you. You, Kurt, you never date!"

"Thanks, Dad," Kurt rolled his eyes.

"I'm just saying. You've never had any real experience with a person your age before and you suddenly start with a guy who is the complete opposite of you, a - a reverse epitome of a Hummel, if that ever makes sense."

Kurt sighed again, but kept it more calm. He loved his dad and was happy to see him looking out for him. But he wasn't a little child anymore. Kurt may still be young and vulnerable to this kind of thing, but would Blaine really, truly pressure Kurt or abuse him after all Kurt knew about Blaine so far?

"Dad," Kurt began, "You've heard this a million times in cheap summer movies about teenagers rebelling against their parents and stuff, and I know you think it's annoying and crappy, but I need you to trust me on this one. Yes, he wears black clothing and kinda talks like he's from an 80's movie, but so what? Blaine can be...misguided sometimes, and he gets into trouble, but that's because he's never really had anybody to confide in before. He's actually really smart and patient when he's with me."

"You're tellin' me you can change a miscreant?" Burt asked, his eyebrow raised.

Kurt thought about this for a moment, pursing his lips and shaking his head.

"I don't want to try and change him. He is who he is. This isn't a fairy tale where the hot girl softens the beast," Kurt giggled, "And I know you're totally picturing me as the girl in that role. But I don't want to change anybody here. I just want to...be with him. There for him. Whichever comes first."

Burt stared at his son for a while longer.

"Everyone has morals and such, Dad, but sometimes, when we're alone, it's like I can tell he's feeling upset or like there's something he wants to tell me that he isn't. Do you know how good and proud it makes you feel when you can just be_ there_ for someone?"

"Of course I do," Burt said. "That's why I have you."

There was a pause.

"You've never done anything inappropriate with this boy?" Burt interrogated.

"What?" Kurt's head snapped up. "No." _Well, Kurt thought, Let's just say, Dad, that you're lucky you walked in at the time you did instead of earlier. _"No..sex."

"You've never broken the law with this boy?"

"No."

"Any drinking, drugs...?"

"No, Dad, I promise, and I won't get into any of that."

Burt stared at his son for a long time, thinking how he had gotten so wise in his younger years. He wished more damned teenagers could have thought more like his son. He certainly had a lot of qualities from his mother that still lived on strong.

"I trust you, Kurt," Burt said gruffly. "But I'm warning you: anything that goes wrong, I'll be the firs to know about it. It won't end nicely."

You could see Kurt physically relax, looking relieved. "Thanks, Dad."

Burt gave his son a huge hug that a son or daughter would be embarrassed to be seen in in public. The two descended by the stairs, and Kurt saw something he thought he'd never see: his step-mother and his delinquent boyfriend sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee in Carole's hands. They seemed to be sharing a somewhat awkward but mostly friendly conversation.

"Burt," Carole smiled when she saw her husband, "I was just talking to -"

"Blaine," Blaine stood up from his seat and half smiled like he did when he was in Kurt's bedroom. He extended his hand to Burt. "Anderson."

Burt eyed the hand in front of him. Well, it wasn't covered in blood or holding a gun, and if Blaine was as gentle as Kurt said he was, he knew these hands wouldn't hurt him.

"Burt Hummel. Nice to meet you, kid."

Kurt leaned against the threshold of the kitchen, shaking his head slightly in disbelief. This was going to be the most interesting holiday season ever.


	22. Eve's and Anniversaries

_AN: So apparently they're singing an acoustic version of teenage dream in the break up episode? I don't want to believe this 100% but I will wait until the songs come out in a few days. I am dreading the break up episode. I don't know how emotionally stable I'm going to be after it._

It was finally Christmas Eve. Kurt was a little saddened since it was not a white Christmas his year. Growing up, Kurt's white Christmases decreased as the years went on and on since the planet just continued to become both overpopulated and polluted, so instead of seeing soft blankets of pure, crystal white covering the ground and falling from the sky, there were only concrete roads and bare trees to see. Kurt's neighborhood didn't even really care to decorate that much. Burt had installed a few Christmas fairy lights that blinked different colors, and of course they had a wreath pinned their door, but other than that, all the other houses next to Kurt's were mostly nude.

Oh well, at least there was plenty of food, and of course, Kurt's favorite, plenty and plenty of strawberry cheesecake for after Christmas dinner.

A few of Kurt's aunts and uncles had come over, as well as a few of Finn's. There were a lot of hugs that smelt like perfume and camping supplies, loud laughs, awkward stories about Kurt and Finn, and many uncomfortable requests such as "Kurt, would you please mind getting me a glass of eggnog? I just had my hip replacement and I'm just glued to this chair!" or "Come here, Kurt, take a seat on Aunt Mildred's lap! My, you've gotten so tall since the last time I've seen you!"

Kurt had to keep reminding his aunt that he was now seventeen years of age and that he was fine standing on his own, and that yes, people tend to grow once they get older. But all in all, Kurt had a pretty good night. Sure, Christmas wasn't as magical as how it used to be, but at least Kurt still had people to spend it with.

Blaine, on the other hand, wasn't quite in the same state of mind as Kurt.

He sat in his room, lying on his back while staring at the ceiling. He could hear the shaky cries and drunken screams of his mother outside in the living room. There were some loud bangs and crashes coming from outside Blaine's room, and every sound was accompanied by a wail from Blaine's mother.

December twenty fourth, the nine year anniversary of Blaine's father's departure from the family.

Nine years ago on this day, a man that Blaine couldn't bring himself to call "dad" left his house for good and never came back or called. From that exact moment on, you could see with your own eyes how Blaine's mother slowly began to unravel and disintegrate from the inside out. Her usually kept hair would start to break out of it's bun and her face sagged, lacking sleep. She began to neglect Blaine as the years went on, and was introduced into heavier alcohols.

The shrieks from outside became unbearable for Blaine to listen to. He huffed, bringing a hand up to the bed so he could push himself up. He opened the door and could see his mother standing in her bathrobe, her hair in a disheveled attempt at a braid. she flung an empty glass bottle at a picture on the wall. It was a photo of Blaine's dad that was taken a long time ago, back when Blaine didn't exist and back when his parents probably had some sort of chemistry. Blaine knew that there wasn't any photo's of his dad hanging up, but his mother probably hung one up for the occasion to throw things at it.

How festive.

"Shut the hell up," Blaine told his mother. "It's Christmas for goddamn sake."

Blaine's mom looked to her son with a drunk twist in her eyes, but her anger and annoyance remained. "Then go somewhere else for the night, I'm sure you have no problem doing that, you faggot."

"He's not coming back," Blaine leaned against his doorframe, "Throwing shit at a photo that was taken in the fucking 70's isn't gonna ruin him or whatever so you can have some sweet revenge."

His mother sobbed and shucked another empty glass at Blaine, but he managed to close his door before it hit him, shattering loudly against the wooden door.

This happened every year. Blaine's mom would get over emotional and Blaine would have to try and talk some sense into her. It was like a holiday mantra. Blaine gave up on trying to be nice to her about it years ago, since all she did was yell and drink and drink and yell. Blaine was still trying to discover how his mother even remembered what day it was. Why did she even feel hurt anymore? He was gone long ago, gone without any goodbye or any calls to let his family know he was okay. It was good such an asshole was out of their lives.

Blaine locked his door so his mother wouldn't try to come in, and he flicked his lamp on. It flickered weakly for a few seconds before it finally got enough strength to hold the light completely. Flopping onto his bed, Blaine sucked in a breath, closed his eyes and tried to muffle the screams by holding his hands over is ears.

Suddenly, on the inside on his pocket, he felt a vibration coming from his phone. He pulled it out and read the message.

_Merry Christmas Eve. I wish I could see you, but I'm spending the night with my partly deaf family who eat too much gravy and not enough turkey. - Kurt_

Blaine smirked. In the midst of all this craziness on a night that was supposedly supposed to represent family and love, here comes Kurt, bringing just a little light into Blaine's shitty evening.

Blaine quickly typed a response back.

_Can I call you? - Blaine_

Blaine awaited for an answer anxiously, not wanting to appear too clingy, because if Blaine was one thing, it was certainly not clingy. A few minutes past and Blaine assumed that Kurt had forgotten about him, but then, a new message popped up.

_Sure. Everything okay? - Kurt_

Blaine started to press the dial number, moving into the corner of his bedroom farthest away from the door so that none of his mother's screeches travelled into the phone.

Kurt answered after two rings. "Hello? Blaine?"

Blaine sat up against the wall, his knee bent and his forehead resting against it. "Kurt."

"Hi," Kurt said, his voice sounding so goddamn _bright _and _normal_ that Blaine wished he were at his house instead of his own. "I'm sort of hiding in my garage right now, so I can't talk too long or else some drunk uncle might come in and try to tempt my dad into driving our car. What's up?"

"I-" Blaine began, but the paused. Why was he calling Kurt? He didn't need to ask any questions and he certainly was not about to ask if he could come and stay with him. Kurt's dad probably hated him as it was and he didn't need to deal with old, wrinkly relatives.

"Just - I don't know why I called."

Kurt sounded worried. "Blaine? Is everything alright?'

"I'm just having a shitty night," Blaine began, not quite sure if he was doing the right thing by telling Kurt all of this information. "My mom is a crazy ass bitch and I've got nothing to do. This isn't Christmas."

"Your mom?" Kurt asked. "Did she hurt you, Blaine?"

"No," Blaine said. _Not physically, at least._

"Blaine, I...I'm not quite sure I get what you're saying. I can't really talk for too long because I have so many things to do."

Blaine's heart sank a little. Kurt was busy with his family who loved him.

"Okay," was all Blaine said.

"I'm sorry," and Kurt sounded like he really meant it. "I wish you could have had a better night."

"I wish you were here with me."

And did Blaine really just say that out loud? Did he, a cold hearted miscreant, make a romantic remark?

He didn't care. It was a terrible night and Blaine meant it, he was honest, and he really needed Kurt to be with him.

"I wish I could be there with you," Kurt whispered, and Blaine felt heat rise to his face.

"Come over tomorrow," Kurt told him. "On Christmas. My family and I are having a dinner. Just for us, no psycho relatives, I promise."

"I couldn't do that. Your family despises me as it is, plus I'm not about to ruin your Christmas."

"You could _never_ ruin it, Blaine," Kurt was pushing now in an earnest voice. "My family doesn't hate you. My dad warmed up to you, didn't he? Please, Blaine. I want you to be happy."

Those were words that Blaine had never heard before.

"Please?" Kurt asked sweetly. "You can eat all the food you want, and I swear it'll be good."

Blaine smiled. He was trying so, so hard to keep the liquid in his eyes. He was not about to cry on Christmas Eve, huddled in the corner of his room with his mom outside screaming like she was being brutally murdered. Kurt, a theatre geek who dressed like he was Willy Wonka, was not about to make him cry. But he did.

"Okay," Blaine choked. "I'll come."

"Good," Kurt sighed in relief. "I'll let my dad know. Come over at around five, okay?"

Blaine nodded before realizing Kurt couldn't see him. "Yes."

"Okay. I have to hang up now Blaine, but please be careful, alright? Text me if you need anything, anything at all."

Blaine was shaking now.

"Goodnight. Merry Christmas Eve, Blaine."

"You too," Blaine got out, because there was no way he could say the entire thing back to Kurt without bursting out crying. He snapped his phone shut, a few stray tears managing to fight against Blaine's resistance.


	23. Given Trust

_AN: Well everyone, the break up episode has ripped me apart (even though I handled it a lot better than I thought I would) and I think that it was so out of character for Blaine to cheat on Kurt. But nonetheless, I still like Blaine so please, I don't want to see any Blaine bashing! My heart goes out to my baby Kurt here, my god, can he ever get a moment of peace that lasts more than one episode? But alas, I have found something that has temporarily cured my sadness! The answer? Perks of Being a Wallflower FINALLY got released in my home town and wow. This MOVIE WAS REALLY AMAZING. I read the book quite a few times and I loved it and to be honest I didn't expect much from the movie, but wow. EVERYTHING was perfect about it. From the actors (I was impressed with Lerman Logan, and let's not forget my girl Emma) from the setting to the music, ESPECIALLY the music (because you guys know how much I love incorporating music into my stories and in the perks novel, music was a huge part of the story), and everything was just like the book (because the author directed it.) I got sooo many chills and I cheered and cried along with the audience. This is probably my new favorite movies as it is one of my favorites books. I've been waiting for the movie for about a year and let me just tell you, if you've read the book and want to see the movie, you're going to be blown away!_

The third time that Blaine Anderson steps onto the Hummel-Hudson porch, his boots crusted with light snow and his hair slightly less messy that usual in an attempt to make a good impression, is for Christmas Day. The first time he ever did so was when he was snooping around in Kurt's room, and the second time when he gave Kurt his first-ever blow job and was lucky enough to not get walked in on _during_ the blowing-procedure, but instead, afterwards.

Okay, so the first impression thing is kind of, well, not really a first impression. Blaine had already met Burt and Carole before, and Blaine was pretty sure that Carole thought he was a slightly strange but funny young lad. However, it was all huffs and grunts for Burt. Blaine _never_ tried too hard to be better for anyone, whatever _better_ was considered, but last night on Christmas Eve was just like every other one of his Christmas Eve's: complete and utter shit. Being invited to a _real_ house, with _real_ Christmas food, surrounded by _real_ people with a _real_ boyfriend?

Well, Blaine never thought he'd see that day.

Not that he cared. Until he met Kurt, nothing really bothered him from school, to his home life and his mother, and to his personal, alcohol-and-sex-induced life.

Remember the Transition Theory? The one that Blaine had about shifting over from good to bad, having a moment of serendipity? Well, Blaine was pretty sure that he hadn't found it yet, but one thing that he was certain about was that Kurt really did make him re-evaluate his choices, or the things that he said and did. Like Blaine said, he wouldn't change for anyone if they just asked him.

Kurt just had a tranquil effect.

It was like that day when Blaine was outside of the school, in a fist fight with Rick-the-Stick-Moron. Blaine was so, so angry, and he felt as if punching and kicking the life out of Rick would be the only way to release the anger. And then all of a sudden, Kurt dragged him from behind, and then it was like somebody hit a mute and pause button on a remote control at the same time. Things went still for a moment. Blaine noticed the look of concern and the expression of "what are you doing?" on Kurt's face, and Blaine kew that he couldn't let Kurt see him all exposed and beaten up. There was no way, and Blaine was still trying to figure out at night why this boy of all boys gave him this feeling of wanting to improve rather than any other boy he'd fucked.

"...'ello?"

Blaine snapped out of his trance, and suddenly he was standing in front of an opened door with a tall and burly man standing in the threshold. He wore a blue dress shirt, a pair of dark jeans, and an oddly out of place baseball cap. Burt looked down at Blaine.

"Hi," Blaine said awkwardly, still trying to remember when the door opened without him realizing it. he held his hand out. "Sir."

Burt eyed the hand in front of him and then shook it firmly. He stepped aside to let Blaine inside.

"I see you're early," Burt watched as Blaine undid his shoes and placed them on a matt next to some other pairs of shoes. Blaine had tried to dress a tiny bit nicer, only because he didn't want to blow his only chance of having an authentic Christmas for the first time in years. Blaine traded in the tight t-shirts and ripped-at-the-knee jeans for something a tad nicer - a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar smoothed down, a pair of darker-washed and not ripped jeans, and...the leather jacket. Okay, so Blaine didn't have a fancy peacoat like Kurt did, but he did the best he could. Besides, Blaine was wearing one of the three dress shirts he owned, so in his mind, he looked like a king right now.

"Thanks for having me over," Blaine said. "I know it's kind of short notice. But Kurt asked me."

"I know," Burt murmured. "I'm not tryin' to offend you, but don't you have something to do back at your own place, kid? With your folks?"

Blaine's eyes shifted to the carpet before speaking. "Not really. My family is sort of...busy this year. No time for the holidays."

Burt wasn't sure if he believed this right away, but he went with it. "I see. Well, dinner should be ready in about an hour or so. Kurt's up in his room."

"Thanks, sir."

"Keep that door open, you hear?"

"Yeah, sir."

Blaine made his way up the stairs, running into Carole and saying hello before knocking on Kurt's door when he got to it. There was no answer, so Blaine pressed his ear against the wood to see if Kurt was inside. He could just make out a light humming noise, so Blaine went ahead and opened the door.

Kurt's back was facing Blaine, the male and female harmonies from _Baby, It's Cold Outside _softly playing from Kurt's ipod docking station, Kurt humming along happily. Blaine had to suck in his breath and hold it in, because there was Kurt, his naked back exposed to Blaine as Kurt reached for the maroon sweater on his bed. Blaine's eyes scanned over the pale planed of Kurt's back, noticing a constellation of freckles gathered onto the back of one shoulder. Blaine licked his lips and cursed as Kurt pulled the sweater over his head, covering the skin.

Kurt was still humming before he turned around and noticed Blaine. He gave a half-shriek, an enormous amount of blush heading straight to his cheeks that Blaine just found wonderful. His eyes were wide and blue, and Blaine just stood still, trying to process what he had just seen. The music continued to play on in the background, acting as the ultimate soundtrack of awkwardness for the situation.

"Hey," Blaine said, getting mad at himself for sounding shy. He cast his eyes downwards, and the sight of Blaine's long, dark lashes against his flushed cheeks made Kurt suck in his lips. Kurt usually did that when he found something utterly attractive.

"Hi," Kurt said after a while, most of the surprise gone. He smiled and appreciated at Blaine's bashfulness, something no one ever got to see too often. Kurt stepped closer to Blaine and threw his arms around his neck, giving him a greeting hug. Blaine was surprised at first, but then he responded by enveloping Kurt in his arms. It was a nice hug, full of warmth and sweaters and Christmas.

Blaine felt Kurt move his lips up to his ear, and he whispered something.

"You look handsome."

That was all it took for Blaine to become speechless, because when has the sweet little Kurt ever called him that?

Blaine didn't say anything, but that was alright. Kurt knew that he didn't need to. All he needed to do was look at the color of Blaine's cheeks, a pale red, and he knew that it was meant as a "thank you."

"I'm glad you're here," Kurt smiled, and Blaine smiled back.

"Me too."

"So, um, was everything okay last night?" Kurt asked, taking in a deep breath. "With your mom and everything?"

Blaine's eyes hardened for a minutes before melting like ice. "Yeah, it was okay."

"You know you can tell me about it if you want," Kurt murmured.

Blaine nodded, uncertainty in his eyes and his hands going limp around Kurt. "Maybe later on."

"Okay," Kurt nodded.

He didn't want to pressure Blaine into telling him something nasty - something Kurt predicted he would find ugly. But Blaine was standing there in a goddamn_ button-down, _in his house, about to have dinner with his family - what were the odds of that ever happening?

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door even though it was opened. The boys immediately stepped apart from each other and turned to face the door, where Finn was standing, munching on a cookie decorated with red and white icing.

"Oh," Finn said behind the cookie. "Hey, Blaine."

Kurt flinched, because Finn's voice sounded a bit cold. Finn knew who Blaine was after the incident of them underneath the bleachers. But even before that, he knew the things that Blaine had supposedly been suspended from Dalton for - drinking on campus, stealing, smoking, and getting into a couple of fights. And there he was, standing in the middle of Kurt's room.

Blaine gave a short wave. "What's up?"

"Kurt never told me you were coming over for Christmas," Finn said, and Kurt shot him a glare. But Finn payed no attention to Kurt.

"Can I speak with you for a minute, Finn?" Kurt tried to suppress his growl. Finn just shrugged and walked out the door. Kurt was about to follow him before he turned back to face Blaine and said, "Um...hold on one minute. Let me just handle him. You can make yourself comfortable if you like."

Kurt disappeared and Blaine was left alone in Kurt's room. He began to scan Kurt's shelves again. He had so many books that Blaine didn't get to see all of them the last time he was there. _Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre,_ the entire _Harry Potter _series...all of which Blaine had read. He knew Kurt was a deeply intelligent boy, but not many people could tell that Blaine was just as intelligent. Blaine always thought that school smarts weren't always the number one priority. He believed that if you weren't good in school, it didn't make you a stupid person because there are other kinds of smarts you can be. But Kurt, Kurt seemed to be all kinds of smart. Blaine admired smart. He found it sexy, and maybe since Kurt was really the only smart person he'd ever known in his life, that was why he was so engrossed in him.

Blaine was left in Kurt's room for a little while,_ Catcher in the Rye_ in his hands as he sat cross-legged on top of Kurt's bed, before someone entered the room. It was Kurt.

"Hey," Blaine's head shot up from it's slouching position, snapping the book shut. "What happened?"

"I just went to tell Finn to lay off you," Kurt sighed, sitting down on the bed next to Blaine. "I'm sorry. He isn't that fond of you."

"Isn't everyone?" Blaine asked sarcastically, but not unkindly. "That isn't a secret, babe. There's a lot of people who don't like me."

"He's just being immature."

"Yeah, well, so am I, most of the time."

Kurt looked at Blaine's profile, just examining him, try to figure out what was inside his head. Blaine could be so frustrating and confusing sometimes, and other times, it was like his mind worked like he was trying to be comfortable.

"Boys! Dinner is ready!" A woman's voice called from downstairs.

"Well," Blaine said as he got up and stretched his elbow over his head, "I guess it's time to face the music."

"Don't worry," Kurt assured. "They don't hate you. You just kind of scared my dad a little bit, but it's fine now. I talked to him about it."

"Did you tell him how much of an asshole I am?" Blaine asked, turning away from Kurt. "He'll love that."

"Hey," Kurt placed his hands on Blaine's shoulders and forced him to look at him. "They will love you. You'll be fine. Just don't, you know...try to cut back on the swear words. And don't insult Finn or hit on me when my dad will be slicing a turkey across from you."

Blaine just snorted and kissed Kurt on the mouth deeply.

The boys headed downstairs, where the smell of fresh Christmas dinner was wafting from. The smell of it alone was enough to make Blaine's mouth water. He couldn't remember the last time he had a real dinner, something that wasn't fast food or quick ten minute meals that Blaine learned to make from a special on food network he saw one day.

Carole was in the middle of placing a pot on the dining room table. Burt sat at the very front of the table, while Carole took her place at the other end. Carole smiled at Blaine. Her hair was pulled into a wispy bun and she looked tired from all that cooking, but she still looked happy to enjoy her Christmas dinner.

"Hello, Blaine," Carole greeted sweetly. "It's nice to see you again."

Blaine nodded. "You too."

Kurt took a seat, and Blaine immediately sat down next to him. There was no way he was getting roped into sitting next to Burt. But Burt, surprisingly, didn't look as menacing as the day Blaine first met him.

A few minutes later, Finn came down and sat down across from Blaine and Kurt. "Took you long enough," Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Rachel won't leave me alone," Finn said, waving his phone in the air as evidence for his slowness. "She keeps telling me about some weird jewish thing she's doing with her dads. It's like she doesn't even realize I have Christmas."

Blaine was impressed at how quickly Kurt and Finn seemed to rekindle from their supposed argument earlier.

"Well then," Carole said, clapping her hands together, "I suppose we should get started."

"Do you guys say grace or anything?" Blaine asked, and everyone looked at him.

"Kurt's atheist," Burt told him.

"But if that's something you do at home, you can go ahead, honey," Carole said.

"No, it's okay," Blaine said. "I don't exactly do that stuff at my house either." _I don't even have real dinner at my house, how the hell am I suppose to thank God for giving me nothing?_

"Alright then," Burt announced. Everyone got up from the table and grabbed their plates with them, starting to move around the table as they picked what they wanted on their plates. They sat down once more and began to ate.

The dinner wasn't as awkward as everyone thought it would be. It was a little hard to start conversation in the beginning, but it mellowed out and started to flow easier as plates emptied.

"So Blaine," Carole asked after a few bites, "Where did you go to school before McKinley?"

"I went to Dalton," Blaine replied. He took a bite of the huge hunk of turkey in front of him. If Blaine could have a culinary orgasm, this would be it.

"And why don't you go there anymore?" Carole asked.

Blaine paused. Should he tell Kurt's entire family the reason why he was kicked out of his former school? Was now the best time? He didn't know his future with Kurt, but if he wanted to stay with Kurt for a long time, then he was going to have to get to know his family. He decided he should lie for now.

"It just wasn't the place for me. Too preppy. You know."

Burt nodded. "That's a damn nice school, though."

"It is."

"You into football, Blaine?"

"Uh, a little. I don't really watch it as much as I used to, but my dad did a lot."

"Oh really? And what does he do?"

Blaine swallowed. "I...don't really see that much of him anymore. He moved a while ago."

"That's too bad," Burt said. "Well, hopefully you were still able to have a decent holiday with your family."

Blaine smiled. But it wasn't a genuine one. "Yeah."

"Well that's alright then," Carole chimed in. "Because we're glad to have you over."

"Thank you," Blaine said, and he felt Kurt's and rub his knee comfortingly underneath the table.

Despite some of the lies Blaine had to tell them, Kurt's family was very sweet. They laughed loudly and weren't ashamed to say embarrassing things out loud. This was so strange to Blaine. He got this weird sensation in the pit of his stomach, and not because of the first full meal he had in forever. It was because he never had this, whatever this was. He never got to exchange stories with his mother or father, never got to listen to other people surrounding him laugh and talk about their lives.

When dinner was over, Carole and Kurt helped clear the dishes off of the table. Blaine was about to help when Burt pulled him aside.

"Blaine," Burt asked, his voice low. "You mind if I talk to you?"

_Shit, what did I do now? _"Sure."

The burlier man and the curly haired boy moved so that they were standing near the front door and away from the kitchen. The cold from outside was seeping through the door and you could feel it if you stood too close to it. Blaine rubbed his arms.

"That was a lie, wasn't it?" Burt asked.

Blaine froze. "What?"

"The thing you said about Dalton. It was a lie."

"How do you know?" Blaine tried his best to keep his defensiveness hidden.

"I have a teenage son, kid. I can tell when he's lying."

"Okay, so what? I got kicked out of my old school because I was a prick," Blaine said boldly without any remorse. "I stole, I smoked, I drank. I still do sometimes. Let's face it, I'm bad for your kid. But he likes me anyway."

Burt looked at Blaine for a long, long time, before shaking his head and sighing. "What you do in your business is up to you, kid. I mean sure, if Kurt did any of that stuff he would be in a hella trouble, but...I don't know your story or anything. You make my kid happy. He's more open now, you know?"

Blaine nodded. He did know.

"You don't have to lie around me anymore," Burt confirmed. "Whatever is it you did in the past or still do, all I ask is that you don't use any of it to hurt my son."

"No, sir," Blaine could never think of doing that. "Not at all."

"Good," Burt said. He held his hand out. Blaine stared at it before grasping it and firmly shaking it.

Kurt's father had accepted him so much faster than any other person had in his life. Especially his own dad.

"Thanks, sir," Blaine choked.

Burt nodded to him and gave a smile. He had no clue why, but even though a kid like Blaine was what he usually despised, he couldn't help but feel like there was more dimension to him than he lead on. Maybe it wasn't all cigarettes and cussing.

Later on, into the tiny hours of the night, Kurt and Blaine were allowed to go upstairs into Kurt's room. The rest of the family was downstairs, cleaning up. Kurt's radio softly blared out the old classic _Jingle Bell Rock_ from a grainy recording. Kurt sat on his bed with Blaine's head rested in his lap, his eyes closed. Blaine gave permission to Kurt to let him play with his hair, which he had mentioned before that he normally hated.

"I'm sorry my dad asked you all those weird questions at dinner," Kurt said softly, looking down at Blaine.

"It's cool," Blaine sighed in contentment, although he would never admit it outwards. "He was okay with it. Besides, the food was fantastic."

Kurt smiled. "I'm glad you thought so."

"Mhmm."

It got quiet for a second, the music continuing to quietly sing along and fill Kurt's room with sound. Blaine felt a wave of sadness hit him from out of nowhere. When was the last time he had a day like this? The last time his mother played with his hair, or cooked real food, or seen his own father? Kurt, this not-so-ordinary teenage boy who dressed like he was going to a royal ball and had an amazing, down to earth family. Where had he come from? Why did he, of all the people in this world, choose Blaine, someone who could never give him anything?

Maybe he_ could_ give him something.

"My mother is insane," Blaine whispered. Kurt looked down at him, his fingers briefly freezing in his curls, but then his face returned to normal. Kurt didn't pry, didn't ask any questions, he just listened to the boy in his lap. And that was something that Blaine had been looking for all his life.

"She and my dad..they used to be happy. You know, had 9-5 jobs, went on dates, had lots of sex every night, that sort of thing. But I never saw any of that since I was really little. He left her nine years ago as of yesterday. I don't know why, probably because he cheated on her or something and he didn't want a son anymore. That part's a mystery. She went bat shit from there. Her job is shitty and she can barely have the strength to stay the hell awake. She drinks... a lot. That's al she spends her money on. I don't even remember what Christmases or birthday's or anything feels like anymore until today. But the worst part is that I don't hate her. She's my mom. How could I do that? What the hell is the point of even having a kid who just fucks up all the damn time? I want to blame my shit father for everything, but how could I have ever know what he was doing? He could either be getting sucked off my a prostitute right now or living in some big mansion with a hot wife and a new kid. How can I hate him or anybody for not wanting to live with my pathetic mom and me?"

Blaine's voice cracked on the last word, and it was then that he realized that he was crying. Big tears, too, warm ones that slide all the way down the corners of his eyes and onto Kurt's lap. Kurt had tears welled in his eyes, too.

Kurt moved so that he was lying down with Blaine. He moved his lips close to Blaine's ear and whispered something. "You're not pathetic. You're wonderful."

Kurt swept his fingers gently across Blaine's cheeks to get rid of the tear tracks, allowing his own to fall gracefully. Kurt was so close, so warm and beautiful lying right next to Blaine. Kurt was _there_, really there in the moment, hugging his head to his chest and moving his lips across Blaine's neck, planting small and shy kisses there. It overwhelmed Blaine's heart to the point where it felt like there were sparks igniting inside of him. And when Kurt pressed his salty lips to Blaine's, he knew that this had to have been what love felt like.

_AN: Oh my god I know I already said this but I just cannot get over Perks! I wish I could just watch it over and over again. It was almost as equally as amazing as the book. An I know that after this chapter, a lot of you might be guessing how Blaine might say "I love you" to Kurt, but don't think so fast, because it might be a while until he says that according to how I might plan this story. I have an idea in mind, but it's sort of faint. I have to elaborate on it first._


	24. Pancakes

White light was beaming inside from outside the frosty window. It peaked through the navy blue curtains of Kurt's room. Blaine found himself waking up in a warm, large bed, a bed much warmer and larger than his own. He blinked away the sleep in his eyes, and remembered that he was in Kurt's room. Blaine brought his hand up to rub his right eye. When did he sleep in Kurt's room? Blaine tried to recall if he had done anything with Kurt last night, but then again, he was pretty sure he'd remember that if they had.

Taking a deep sigh, Blaine turned his head away from the light and got up. He was still dressed in his jeans and shirt from yesterday. From downstairs, Blaine could vaguely smell coffee and some sort of sweet batter. He could also hear faint mumbling from somewhere, but he couldn't quite make out what the mumbling was saying on account of his sleepy, fuzzy ears. Blaine sat up, stretching his elbows above his head and yawning. Grabbing his socks off the ground and pulling them onto his feet, he rose off of Kurt's cushiony bed and walked out the door into the hallway.

As Blaine was walking down the stairs, he ran into Carole. She was dressed in a puffy winter coat with her purse slung over her shoulder.

"Good morning, Blaine," Carole greeted kindly. "I was just coming to wake you up. You fell asleep here last night."

"I did?" Blaine asked, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "Where did Kurt sleep?"

"He slept on the sofa," Carole chuckled. "He put up a huge fight about it. Burt didn't want him sleeping there, but Kurt insisted. You're lucky, because Kurt always makes guests sleep anywhere other than his bed."

Blaine blinked. Kurt had offered to let Blaine have his entire bed, and on Christmas?

"Oh," was all Blaine could say.

"Burt and I are leaving to go to a few malls today," Carole said. "It's boxing day, so everything will be tons cheaper."

"This is the first time Kurt doesn't want to come with us," said a voice from in front of Blaine and behind Carole. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was Burt, also dressed in his winter coat. "I guess he's going to miss out on all the bargains at those fancy clothing stores he goes to all the time."

Carole went back down the stairs and Blaine followed. He felt a little bad that he accidentally slept over at the Hummel-Hudson residence, especially because he had only ever talked to Kurt's family a few times. And considering that this was Blaine's first ever sleep over, he didn't even really get to experience it.

As Carole was putting on her shoes, Blaine stepped up to Burt to speak to him. "I...I didn't mean to fall asleep," Blaine said quietly. "I, uh...sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Burt waved his hand to display his forgiveness. "Kurt was generous about it, anyway."

"I heard," Blaine said.

"We'll be out for a few hours," Burt said. "Kurt doesn't want to come with us, for some reason. I think all that product he puts in his hair is goin' to his head."

Blaine really didn't expect to wake up to this. He suspected that the Christmas dinner was all a figment of his imagination, but him waking up in Kurt's room justified his imagination being incorrect. And not only that, but Kurt gave up his bed for Blaine on Christmas and now he was missing out on _shopping. _Blaine was starting to think that he woke up in an alternate universe where everything was backwards and twisted.

"Well. We'll see you later on in the day if you're still here," Burt said gruffly.

"Yes, sure," Blaine agreed. "Again...thank you for the dinner last night. I haven't eaten that well in years."

Burt smiled. "Well, you have Carole to thank for that. But it was our pleasure."

"Um. Have a good day, then."

"You too, kid. And hey," Burt wagged his finger in front of Blaine, 'No funny business, understand?"

Blaine assumed that Burt meant no funny business with Kurt, but while Blaine couldn't exactly promise that, he nodded along anyway.

After Burt and Carole were gone, Blaine followed the smell of batter and coffee from where it was coming from in the kitchen. He found Kurt, who was dressed in a long-sleeve, snug looking, white cotton shirt with loose fitting grey sweatpants. Seeing Kurt look so casual and domestic sort of surprised Blaine a little bit, but it also filled his mind with interesting thoughts of him waking up next to Kurt every morning.

Kurt stood in front of the stove, flipping a pancake onto the hot frying pan. The sound of sizzling batter filled the air, and Kurt hummed idly.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Kurt said without turning around. The smile in his voice was audible.

"Morning," Blaine replied, coming up beside Kurt to examine him. His hair was obviously brushed, but it wasn't as pristine and styled as it usually was, leaving it in a slightly messy disarray. Blaine's eyes shifted down to the plate of pancakes that Kurt was making. They smelled delicious, and they were probably a lot better than the pancakes Blaine made himself at home, and they were _definitely _better than the ones his mother made.

"How did you sleep?" Kurt asked.

"Fine," Blaine answered. More than fine. Kurt owned the most comfiest bed Blaine had ever slept on. Blaine had a not-so-bad bed himself, a double one with a decent sized mattress and a good comforter (as Blaine liked to think he had the nicest and most normal room in his house), but Kurt's bed won him over by a landslide. "I had no idea I crashed here."

"It's okay," Kurt reassured. He finished another pancake and poured a small amount of batter onto the pan to start another one.

"Did you really sleep on the couch for me?" Blaine smirked.

"Yes, is that so hard to believe?" Kurt quirked an eyebrow.

"It's just hard to imagine Mr. Princess sleeping on a couch while the devil sleeps in his bed," Blaine cooed as he moved to wrap his arms around Kurt's middle. Kurt smiled. Blaine didn't know when he started to gradually become so affectionate, but Kurt certainly didn't seem to mind.

"Well, I didn't want to wake you up. You actually looked really peaceful in your sleep, surprisingly, and a lot better than you do in your awake state," Kurt teased.

Blaine playfully and lightly smacked Kurt on the ass before chuckling deeply into his ear. "Shut up. You know, Christmas is over now, I can only be nice for so long."

"I see."

"Mhmm."

Kurt leaned his head back and he could feel that the first couple of buttons of Blaine's white shirt were undone, so he could easily feel his skin on the back of his neck.

"So what did your dad say when he saw me passed out in your bed?" Blaine asked, stretching his neck and placing his chin on Kurt's shoulder.

Kurt smirked. "Not much, to be honest. He did kind of jump when he walked into the room and there you were, sleeping, and I was next you awake in a totally-creepy Edward Cullen style, but he didn't really mind once he got over the initial shock, and I really don't think he felt like waking you up at two in the morning and making you go home in the cold."

"Thank god for that, my car's a piece of shit," Blaine chuckled warmly in Kurt's ear.

"Hey, Blaine?" Kurt asked, his voice making the note that he wanted to change the topic. "I don't want to...pry or anything. But, last night, when you were telling me about...your mother and all those things, I mean...I know that - that you had issues with her and your dad. I know you told me all about the drinking and getting angry on Christmas. But if it's alright...I would like to know, I mean, what happened exactly."

Kurt could hear the gulp that Blaine made when he swallowed. It wasn't a nervous gulp, not the kind of gulp you take when you're about to sing a solo in front of a hundred people at Sectionals, but more of a self-preparing, gathering-oneself gulp. Kurt held his breath; he hoped he didn't make Blaine upset.

"She's insane," Blaine said, and the words almost tasted foul in his mouth on account of how little he got to say them since he never talked to anybody about what was on his mind. "After my dad left, she just never really got it together. I'll just say that there's a lot of screaming at Christmastime, and throwing. That's all I can really tell you."

Blaine meant it, too. What else could he tell Kurt? In what way could he explain to Kurt that his mother gets even more drunk and unlike herself on Christmas than in general, and that she gets to worked up about something that happened so long ago that she sets up old photographs like bowling pins and hurls half-empty vodka bottles at them?

Kurt was so thankful on the inside that Blaine wasn't running from him. He would never force Blaine to tell him anything he wasn't ready for, because this goddamn kid was like the giant, neglected book that every book store has, one with a torn cover or maybe nobody likes that author, something that nobody ever tried reading before. But covers are always deceiving, and once you started to read that torn up book, there's no stopping. At least Blaine didn't get angry or shy away from Kurt after he asked him the question.

Kurt placed a hand gingerly over top of Blaine's on his own stomach, finally finishing up the last of the pancakes. Kurt reached across the stove to switch the nob off, and that's what Blaine said,

"You must think I'm super fucked up, don't you sweetheart?"

Kurt sighed, hanging his head low and placing his hands on the counter top. He shook his head, his back still facing Blaine. "I think I've seen enough to determine that you really aren't as bad as people think you are."

There was a pause. "Really?"

Kurt turned around in Blaine's arms. He studied the messy hair, bright eyes and full lips that couldn't decide on an expression intently. There he was, spending his boxing day in his pajamas, making crappy pancakes from a Betty Crocker mix, having a discussion with a person he never thought he would enjoy being around. Now, Blaine was telling him things that probably nobody else in his life ever got to hear. Ever got to go. Kurt smiled. "Really."

_AN: I wanted this to be a bit longer but I've gotten project after project just dumped on me at school. Also, for some reason, my new favorite quote that I came up with all by myself is in this chapter. It's "I think I've seen enough to determine that you really aren't as bad as people think you are." I have absolutely no idea why I like it so much, but when I wrote it I just stared at my computer screen for like five minutes and then I smiled and gave myself a little pat on the back. Having nice writing moments can boost your self-esteem sometimes. One more thing...I know that "Pancakes" is literally the dumbest chapter name that was ever known, but I'm so sleepy right now that I'm too lazy to think of anything else._


	25. First Time for Everything

_AN: HOLY SHIT, HAS ANYONE SEEN CHRIS COLFER'S HALLOWEEN COSTUME. I woke up one morning before school and BAM there's his big giant arms in a tight costume on my tumblr dash. Sorry to sound weird but that man is so gorgeous you wouldn't believe! Also, I wanted to say best of wishes and love to anyone who has been affected by the hurricane Sandy. I live in Canada so we just got a lot of wind and rain, but I know those New Yorkers must be struggling so I send them my best wishes and thoughts._

It was now the middle of the Christmas vacation, and for once in Blaine's life, he was actually having fun. The closest he'd ever gotten to fun before was probably just zoning out in his room, smoking a joint or a cigarette as he listened to music. People would assume that Blaine had "fun" all the time, from all the sex and vandalizing other people's property and laughing while he was drunk. But believe it or not, Blaine didn't really feel invisible like that, or doing those things. Just being still, thinking about absolutely nothing and staring at absolutely nothing was an art. That art of getting lost in oneself was something that not many people could perfect, because of all the distractions. Blaine literally was beginning to think that he was born with a built in switch in his brain, so he could turn it off and on anytime he wanted to block out any bullshit he didn't want.

But this time, he was kind of...dare he say? Enjoying himself. It was probably because he could stay up as late as he wanted at Kurt's house without having to worry about school the next day, and that he could be in Kurt's house for longer periods of time now that his family knew about him. And the more and more time Blaine spent with Kurt, the more and more he warmed up to his surroundings. Sometimes he would eat dinner or lunch with Kurt's family, and other times, he would just come over for a couple of hours or go out somewhere with Kurt. He knew it sounded super corny that he was spending the whole vacation with someone he'd only known for about 3 months, but in that time he'd grown attached to Kurt. It kind of scared him.

Kurt was always very, very sweet. It was surprising how sweet one person could be when a few months ago, he was bitching and being moody towards Blaine. Kurt could shoot a glare full or death and ice, melting anything in his path. His tongue was razor sharp, and his insults and quick-wit could make anyone faint. Fast forward a few months, and there was Kurt, cuddled onto Blaine's side in his house, speaking in a soft and slow voice with a smile on his face. Blaine would never admit this, but Kurt's butterfly kisses were his favorite. He'd never had a butterfly kiss before, not even by his mom or dad, but he'd seen them in movies. He thought that they would feel icky and gross, like a bug climbing onto your face. But Kurt's were nice and soft, since his eyelashes were so long and fanned out, like Blaine's.

It was kind of like Bender and Claire from _The Breakfast Club_. One was a trouble making, foul-mouthed street rat that everyone hated but still had a sensitive side, and the other was a snappy but innocent and insecure person. They were pretty much at opposite ends of the globe in terms of personality, and they'd only known each other for one day, but Claire and bender ended up together fine in Blaine's opinion.

That's why, when Kurt was on his knees if front of Blaine for the first time, Blaine had to blink a few times to make sure it wasn't make believe.

"Um," Kurt said a little awkwardly, "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."

They were at Kurt's house, and it was around night time. It was strange, because one minute Blaine was just sitting on the bed with Kurt, laughing and talking about things he couldn't remember now, and then the next minute it got all quiet.

"CanIgiveyouablowjob?" Kurt said it so quickly that Blaine didn't catch it at first. So Blaine asked him to repeat himself, Kurt looking down at the bed in front of him with his cheeks glowing red. Blaine heard it the second time and felt like he was Alice in Wonderland all of a sudden.

Blaine had been standing against Kurt's wall before he kneeled down and touched Kurt's face gingerly. "Hey, just cause I did it for you doesn't mean that you have to do it back. Don't think of it like that with us," Blaine smirked. "And besides, it's not like I mind doing it for you."

"I want to do it though," Kurt said firmly, but still with a blush in his face. "I promise. It's not about repaying you or whatever." Kurt placed his hand over Blaine's heart and looked into his eyes. "I want to make you feel good, too, Blaine. But I'm also doing this for myself just as much as I'm doing it for you."

"You sure? Because you don't have to prove anything to yourself or think you're a better person for it," Blaine said, placing a hand on Kurt's knee reassuringly.

"No," Kurt replied. "I'm sure. I don't need to prove anything to myself, but I am ready for something more."

Blaine kissed Kurt's chin gently, moving in to nose at his neck. They probably looked pretty ridiculous, kneeling on the floor as they talked about a blow job as if one of them was going off to war or something. But Blaine knew that Kurt was new at this, and that he didn't want to force Kurt into anything. And Kurt knew that Blaine probably didn't get pleasured by anyone often, because usually he would be the one pleasing others. Kurt wanted to change that.

They decided that they weren't going to use a condom. They knew it was just oral and not anal sex, but Blaine had been tested, and he'd never gotten an STD. He also never had sex without a condom before, or had any problems with his body. The thought made Kurt a little nervous and made his heart beat speed, but it didn't make him any less excited.

Or nervous.

Blaine stood back up and leaned against the wall again, scratching the back of his head in a shy manner and watching Kurt below him. Kurt gulped.

"Uh, I don't really know what I'm doing," Kurt said, his voice shaky. But this was not a secret, and Blaine knew it.

"Don't worry about it," Blaine shrugged. "You gotta start somewhere, right? It's not gonna be perfect the first try."

Kurt nodded, and with trembling hands, he moved them up so that his fingers found themselves unhooking Blaine's jeans, zipping down the zipper, and slowly easing down the pants until they hit the floor. Kurt was met with Blaine's legs that were covered in dark, but non-heavy hair. Kurt was also face to face with Blaine's grey boxers, in which Kurt could just make out the faint outline of-

Kurt forced himself to breathe. It was okay, it was only Blaine. Nothing bad was going to happen, right? Blaine made himself pretty clear that he wouldn't get mad if Kurt messed up. After all, Kurt had never done this before, and had only ever touched himself before with his hand.

Blaine watched him. He could sense how nervous and tense he was, almost like a small animal who was shuddering in the cold, but at the same time, Blaine knew that Kurt wanted to do this. The slight arch in his eyebrows and the determined gulp that Kurt took told Blaine that he didn't want to be shushed away. He was ready to try something new.

It seemed odd to Blaine. He himself had given so many of these things, and yet here was an inexperienced and imperfect boy who liked him enough anyway to try something he never had before.

Fingers lightly brushed against Blaine's hips, and then he could feel the gentle tugging on the waistband of his underwear. Blaine wasn't nervous for himself, because he was never afraid of being naked in front of anyone. But his heart pounded for Kurt, on account that he was really the only person that Blaine's ever been with and _cared_ about.

He could see Kurt's eyes widen at the sight of Blaine almost naked (apart from his shirt) in front of him. Seeing a penis in real life and seeing one on a computer screen are two _completely_ different things, Kurt discovered that day. Kurt had no idea why, but he was strangely attracted to it as he stared at the length. Everything was just so different, and this was only the first step.

"You okay?" Blaine asked, peeking down to look at Kurt. Kurt snapped out of his trance.

"What?" Kurt whispered hoarsely. "Um, yes. It's just. Wow."

Blaine smirked. "Good or bad wow?"

"Good," Kurt said immediately, "Good. It's...big."

Blaine laughed. He knew Kurt didn't mean to choose such awkward words, but this was a kid who'd never even watched a full length porn video without screaming or had talked much about sex with anyone he knew. He supposed Kurt would get more used to it as time went on, and hopefully Blaine would get to experiment new things with Kurt. The thought made him shudder pleasantly.

Blaine stroked Kurt's cheek with his fingers once. "Hey. Don't think too much about if you're doing a good job. Just try to enjoy it."

Kurt nodded without taking his eyes off Blaine's member. He closed his eyes shortly and took a little breath, giving himself a mental pep-talk. If he choked, or forgot to swallow, or even _died _in the act of doing this, he was still going to do this not only for his boyfriend, but for himself.

Kurt leaned forward and as he did so, he placed his hands flat on Blaine's thighs. He then engulfed Blaine into his mouth and became still.

Blaine allowed himself to get used to Kurt's mouth. A sharp tingle sparked through his body when he felt Kurt's tongue, making his eyes snap shut and open quickly again. he refrained from gasping too loudly.

After a few seconds, Kurt began to suck slowly and gently. Blaine rolled his head against the wall and sucked in a breath. This blowjob was so much more different than the other ones he had. Instead of being rough and overly-practiced, this one was soft and gentle, so Kurt was teasing Blaine without even realizing it. Blaine liked the feeling, actually. And the fact that Kurt had never done this before made it that much hotter for Blaine.

Kurt only started off with small kitten licks, but he eventually got more confident since Blaine made no indication to stop. His sucks got deeper, longer, and a little bit harder. He placed one of his hands on the part of Blaine's penis that he wasn't reaching with his mouth, and Kurt heard a definite sigh of approval above him.

He tentatively started to swirl his tongue around Blaine's shaft, a little afraid of what might come if he did so. The feeling of Blaine inside his mouth was very strange, foreign. But that wasn't a bad factor.

And then Kurt slid his plumped lips down and back up, and that's when Blaine snapped.

"Shit, Kurt," Blaine closed his eyes and his eyebrows furrowed. He slid his hands into Kurt's silky hair (_how did he get his hair to be that soft? seriously) _and Blaine thrust his hips forward unintentionally into Kurt's mouth. Kurt gasped when he did, and Blaine was about to apologize when Kurt stopped him. he grabbed Blaine by the hand on his hair, telling him to push in deeper. Blaine obliged and then Kurt was fully sucking on him, his cheeks slightly hollowed as he worked himself over.

In terms of blowjobs, it wasn't like God himself descended from the sky and touched Blaine's dick with his hand personally. It was sloppy and imperfect. But what made it so hot and pleasurable and special was that it was Kurt's very first time giving head, and for a newbie, he wasn't doing such a bad job at it.

"God, Kurt," Blaine's voice broke on his boyfriend's name, and he panted, his face tilted towards the ceiling. His lips were parted as if he was going to cry out, and his eyes remained shut as he continued to feel everything Kurt was giving him, and how Kurt was taking him so well. Blaine felt a coiling hot sensation in his stomach and tried to push Kurt off gently.

"Kurt," Blaine rasped out, "I'm really close. Y-you should stop."

Kurt pulled off for only a second with a weak popping noise, looking up at Blaine, and Blaine had never seen anything so _erotic_, so_ sensual _in his life. Kurt had a crazy fire in his blue eyes, like he couldn't get enough, his hair disheveled and his cheeks flushing bright pink. But it was the slight tweak of angelic-ness and innocence mixed in with that fire that Blaine always knew Kurt had that made Blaine go insane. This was Kurt, in all his sex induced glory, and he never looked so desirable.

"I want to swallow," Kurt stated, his voice raspy from all the sucking.

Before Blaine could say anything, Kurt was back on Blaine's erectness, sucking harder but more slowly than ever. Blaine moaned loudly and threw his head back so it was on the wall again. The last few moments before Blaine came were the most intense, and that's when he released, sending himself flowing into Kurt's mouth for the first time ever.

The taste of Blaine's come on his lips was not what Kurt expected. He'd expected it to taste like disgusting poison, or rotten milk. Something along the lines of expired food. But instead, it had both a slight sweet and bitter taste to it. Kurt knew it was a taste that he certainly wouldn't mind tasting again. The thought made him almost smile with excitement. The first time ever that _he_ was taking charge, that _he_ was pleasing someone else.

A few drips managed to get their way out of the corner of Kurt's mouth, but when he finally pulled off, he wiped them away with his sleeve. He couldn't be perfect on the first try, right?

He noticed Blaine's body slumped against the wall, almost looking like he was going to fall over. His sweaty curls were plastered to his forehead and his eyelashes were fanned across his cheeks. His panting was becoming more controlled now. And there it was, _the smile_, spread across his face. Kurt had made Blaine do this, made him feel things that he never thought he could make another person feel. He had made himself along with his boyfriend feel sexy. Kurt couldn't help but be a little proud of himself, and something told him that Blaine was, too.

"So?" Kurt asked cheerily after clearing his throat. Blaine gave an out of breath laugh.

"Damn," was all he could say.

_AN: Sorry if I use awkward words for this part. I hate the words "cock" and "dick" because I think they're so unsexy._


	26. Us and Them

_hey, we r having a new years party this weeks at rachels, want to come?_

Kurt stared at his phone screen. Mercedes had just texted him a few minutes ago, and he didn't know how to respond. Usually on New Year's Eve, Kurt would spend the night with his family (which usually just consisted of him and his Dad counting down the clock to midnight before Burt married Carole and the family expanded,) but he knew that since he was older now, Burt wouldn't be opposed to letting Kurt go out to a party.

It's just that Kurt still didn't mention Blaine to any of his friends yet.

It's not that Kurt was embarrassed of Blaine, and God knew that Blaine wasn't embarrassed of Kurt. But Kurt knew that the glee club would be. It's funny. The glee club had a reputation of being accepting and full of diversity, but it seemed to Kurt that every time the club he was apart of could find even just a scrape of something even lower on the social food chain than themselves, they would criticize it and spit on it as if it were a bug. Kurt loved being apart of the singing and dancing aspect of the club, but as for being a hypocrite? He tended to stay away from that stuff.

Still. They were going to judge Blaine. His dark clothing and unruly hair, his burning gaze and foul mouth. And it didn't seem fair to Kurt. There were two different types of Blaine's: the kind where he was being a reckless teenage boy and he was inconsiderate towards others, and the kind where he was affectionate and spoke with words of wisdom about books and life and love. Kurt's friends were going to completely look past that and see only one side, because their expectations of a sparkling, adorable, lovable and sugary sweet boyfriend for Kurt would be demolished. Well, you can't get everything you want in this world.

"What's that?" Blaine asked from behind Kurt, who was sitting on his stomach across his bed.

Kurt huffed out some air from his nose. "What would you think of a party with only about twelve to thirteen people?"

"Shit," Blaine responded immediately without even hesitating. He then flopped down on the bed next to Kurt on his back. He crossed his arms behind his head in a relaxed pose. "Why?"

"Because I got invited to a New Year's party by my-"

"Christmas-caroler allies?" Blaine interrupted with a quirk of his eyebrow.

Kurt shot him a glare, although Blaine was somewhat true. "No. The glee club."

"I figured. So what's the problem?"

"The problem is you, Blaine. Not like, _you_ you - but them and you together in the same room when they don't even know we're together."

Blaine shrugged, completely indifferent. "You do know that Puck is probably 100% sure we're together, right?"

"_Puck_ knows?" Kurt asked incredulously. Out of all the people to find out some of the juicy gossip, it's Puck?

"He's probably the only other person a school that I've talked to in a non-violent way other than you," Blaine said with a yawn. Kurt briefly remembered when Puck had pointed out his uncovered hickey in the middle of glee club, and Kurt shook his head. Puck could be a little rough and loud sometimes, but he wouldn't try to break Kurt and Blaine up by convincing him otherwise like his other friends would. Puck would for sure tease Kurt about it and make a lot of sex jokes (as Santana probably would as well) but unlike Mercedes, Tina, and _especially_ Rachel, he wouldn't attempt to try and talk him out of dating Blaine or say what a "bad guy" Blaine was. Because quite frankly, they weren't in the right position to be making accusations like that. Had _they_ been the ones dating Blaine for three months?

"I want to bring you," Kurt murmured, "and I want them to get to know you, but they're all so naive sometimes that it drives me up the wall. It's not fair how they are allowed to express _their _individuality and kiss whoever _they_ want, but suddenly when anything good happens to _me_, I have to hide it since everyone just wants to jump on it and smash it to pieces. And I'm totally turning into one of those girls on my 'my super-sweet-sixteen,' but if you haven't noticed, not a lot of good things happen to me."

Blaine stared at his boyfriend intently and a bit sadly. Was a little bit of shameless flaunting about who you love to the world really such a crime? It was bad enough that Kurt was a gay student who wouldn't even be able to express his love in public anyway, but now, his only group of friends was going to judge Kurt's partner based on the content of his character (or at least, what they assumed about his character) instead of his gender. It's like as soon as Kurt found some people who wouldn't judge him, they do anyway, but for different things this time. Kurt couldn't have it easy, it seemed, and it showed on his face as he continued to stare at the screen.

"We can go," Blaine declared from a sudden out burst of bravery. "Screw them."

Kurt looked to him in disbelief. "Are you sure? The girls are going to nag the hell out of you, Blaine."

Blaine rolled onto his side and propped his head up with one elbow. "I really don't give a shit, Kurt. If you want to go, I'll end up going too. New Years Eve, a party, getting drunk with you? That sounds like a damn good time to me."

Kurt smiled slightly. "I don't care either. But like I said. It's not fair."

"Whatever you want," Blaine reassured. "I've never actually been to a party with a date before. I wonder what you would look like drunk. And naked."

Kurt flushed, but snorted at the same time. "I'm_ not_ getting drunk."

"I picture you as the laughy-giggly kind of drunk. Ooh, or a blabber mouth kind of drunk. Then you can expose all your secrets to me, and if I ask you, you'll tell me how many times a day you masterba-"

"_Blaine_," Kurt's face fell into the pillow in front of him, and Blaine laughed.

"Sorry. I'm just saying."

Kurt went quiet for a moment before saying, "I want you to be at peace with my friends. But they're not easy to live with at first."

"I'm sure most of them, if not, all of them, have done something stupid and fucked up that they don't want anyone to know about," Blaine began. "Well, that's just like me, except I've made multiple mistakes, and unlike them, I don't give a fuck about who knows it."

Kurt smiled for real this time.

"So let's go to this party," Blaine said. 'Let's listen to them nag, and let's get drunk and make out on the floor for everyone to see, and let's not care what they think, because this is you and me, not us and them."

Kurt lay his ear on the mattress, just staring at Blaine and wondering how on earth this many emotions and different pathways could be loaded into just one person.

"Okay," Kurt replied after a moment of silence, "I'll tell Mercedes."

"And hey," Blaine whispered into Kurt's ear, "Just because you hate it when your friends drive you up the wall, doesn't mean I can't." And then Kurt laughed, shoving Blaine off of the bed so that he landed with a soft_ thump_ on the carpeted floor, his curls bouncing as he landed and a chuckle escaping his lips.

_AN: Short chapter this time. More coming later. Has anyone heard that post on tumblr where someone took a Mandy Moore song and lowered the pitches so that it sounded like a Klaine duet? Oh my god, it was amazing. I listen to it pretty much every day. I'm pretty sure it's not a recent post, though. I just came to it late._


	27. First Impressions

_AN: So I just finished reading the SBL novel, and it was pretty funny! I like it because it had a lot of sarcastic and dry humored jokes in it. I feel like I can really relate to Carson Philips, and he reminds me a lot of myself. I can't wait for the movie. I think I liked it a **little** bit more than TLOS because it had more dry humor jokes, and I felt like I related to Carson Phillips more. And I cried during the Kurt and Blaine phone call! Like a baby! Blaine's face broke my heart when he started to cry and when they exchanged "i love you" 's you could really feel the intense emotions. I think thats SJP's character (Isabelle) has been a much better friend to Kurt than Rachel has. Also, I don't really know if this is relevant to anyone, but I just watched my high school's musical! I go to an arts school (so my musicals/plays/concerts are very high quality) and my school did the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The songs are amazing and it's absolutely hilarious, so I recommend watching it to anyone who hasn't!_

"The last party that I went to...Jesus. I don't even remember."

Blaine and Kurt were walking up to Rachel's house from Kurt's navigator. The air was chilly and there were a few hours until midnight, which meant it was almost the New Year. Walking up the cement stairs leading up to Rachel Berry's door with Blaine by his side was probably one of Kurt's most bizarre ideas ever.

"I feel like you'd go to a lot of them," Kurt mentioned.

"Yeah, but...this is different...how do I say this without being offensive?"

Kurt glared. "What?"

"...A real party, you know? With people you don't know who get high and sleep with each other right on the couch for everyone to see. Not a party where you know everyone and the main event of the night is karaoke."

Kurt didn't have a comment. Blaine was partially right, but Kurt had never been to a party, really. Unless you count middle school birthday parties, but Kurt stopped going to those long ago. Blaine was busy blowing clouds of puff into the frosty air, staring at them as if he were really smoking a cigarette. Kurt rolled his eyes.

"You're about to meet my push-over friends for the first time," Kurt hissed. "Can you please act a little less menacing? You and your air puffs."

Blaine laughed. The boys arrived at the door and stood and looked at it for quite some time. It was like staring at a gateway to either hell or...well, in this case, hell was the only option. Kurt knew for sure that his friends weren't going to like Blaine.

Kurt rung the doorbell, and he could immediately hear the shuffling of bodies coming towards the door from inside. He gulped.

"Hey," Blaine said, "I just wanted to tell you, if these fuckers don't like me, I'm not going to be surprised or anything."

"I know _you_ won't. It's just that I've never had a boyfriend before and there are a million things that they could say the minute they see you. Not a lot of them expected me to start dating someone who is the polar opposite of me."

"Opposites attract, right?"

"I guess. I don't know. Don't ask me that, I'm new at this. Just don't-"

The door opened. Rachel's loud laugh from inside the house sounded like a choking seagull to Blaine, and he cringed internally. But her laugh soon disappeared as she literally did impersonate a choking seagull when he saw Blaine.

Rachel's doe-like eyes immediately glued themselves to Blaine, not even acknowledging Kurt's presence. Blaine stared back at her like they were observing a piece of art an an art gallery. Kurt cleared his throat.

"Hello Kurt," Rachel said to only him. "Who is this?"

"This is Blaine, Rachel," Kurt said calmly. "Blaine Anderson. He's my boyfriend."

Rachel stayed silent. She didn't even know that Kurt had a boyfriend. She remembered Mercedes and Tina gossiping about a mystery man who gave Kurt a hickey a few weeks ago, though. And a mystery it was. Why would Kurt go for someone like this?

"I don't remember inviting him, Kurt," Rachel said. Blaine subtly smirked. This girl was already a bitch and he hadn't even said one word.

"Well, I thought he would be invited since he's my guest."

"Yes, but it's my house."

"I really thought you wouldn't mind." _Well I did, actually. _"What's the big deal?"

"You invited someone I don't know into my own house."

"Oh, relax sweetheart," Blaine sighed, his fists inside of his pockets. "I won't do any harm. If anything, you're the one who's doing just that."

Rachel looked both confused and a little mad. She didn't even say anything for the longest time before she _did_, and then it was a little...chaotic.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid that I'm not the one who's about to enter into someone else's house for the first time."

"So I get to come in with my boyfriend, then?"

Rachel blushed at the word _boyfriend_. "I didn't say -"

"Let's talk," Kurt cut in, and walked into the house. "Blaine, go upstairs for a second. Situate yourself."

"But -" Rachel tried, however Kurt pulled her into a corner of the room. Blaine shrugged, kicking off his boots and jacket to place them near the door. Blaine decided he wasn't going to try and dress fancy for Kurt's friends as he did for his family - just a pair of dark pants, a studded belt and a dark red sweater. He made his way up the stairs two at a time, his curly hair bouncing up and down as he tried to ignore what Kurt and Pippy-Longstocking were saying.

Blaine had to walk down a hallway before he got to the living room. Surprise surprise, he actually didn't cause any destruction to the house so far! Rachel would be impressed.

The first thing Blaine saw when he walked into the room was a wheelchair. In that wheelchair was a kid with big glasses, a starch white shirt and a holiday sweater vest over it. Geez, Kurt's friends really needed a make-over. Blaine thought Kurt's clothes were a little weird the first time he met him, but he'd grown to like them as much as he liked Kurt, because they were apart of him and how he liked to present himself. But Rachel was a bitch and this wheelchair kid was in the way, plus sweater vests with animals on them and knee socks made Blaine think that Richard Simmons and the president of an animal-saving committee hung out with this group a lot.

Wheelchair boy looked up at Blaine. "Who are you?"

"Blaine," Blaine replied. "Kurt's boyfriend."

Everyone else in the room froze when they heard the words "Kurt" and "boyfriend" in the same sentence.

Blaine recognized them, they were all members of the glee club. Even guys like Finn and Mike and Sam were there, which was weird because Blaine thought they might have been too cool thanks to their football status to actually_ hang out _with the glee club. Everyone gave either a sour or confused look, wondering why someone was here.

"What did I hear about a boyfriend and Kurt?" someone asked that Blaine didn't know the name of. _Some black chick with fake hair_, Blaine thought.

Blaine sighed. This was going to be so annoying. Maybe coming to this party was a bad idea after all.

"Wait, _he's_ Kurt's boyfriend?" Sam asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"The guy who gave him a hickey?" Santana said. "Wow, this should be good."

"Who are you, exactly?" Quinn tried to ask in a polite voice, but you could tell that there was a slight hint of irritation in her voice. She had enough of looking at bad boy's.

"I'm Kurt's "boyfriend" apparently, if you guys like using labels," Blaine simply stated. "I might as well not tell you my name, because by judging from the looks on your faces, you're not going to use it behind my back."

They all stared at him, except for Santana who had just rolled her eyes and went back to making out with a very drunk Brittany. Puck also let it slide, directing his attention back to the television that had live coverage of the ball dropping in New York City. Blaine sent them a silent thanks, even if he didn't even really know them. They just didn't care about getting into other people's relationships.

Mercedes and Tina were giving each other disgusted looks, and most of the boys had their faces wondering why Kurt would want to date someone who made such a bad impression. Nobody even knew what to say until Rachel came storming up the stairs with Kurt chasing after her.

"Rachel -"

"Ladies," she huffed, eyeing Mercedes and Tina, "We have to talk."

"No, you don't," Kurt protested. But like little ducklings following their mother, got up and scurried to Rachel. The sight made Blaine sick.

"Stop," Kurt hissed in a voice that signified that he wanted his friends to lower their voices, even though everyone was already looking at them. The girls marched downstairs, walking straight past Blaine like he was a ghost and didn't even exist. The look on Blaine's face was pure carelessness, and it would have been actually pretty hilarious had Kurt not been so furious. Rachel was being completely unreasonable.

Kurt once again ran down the stairs after the girls. Blaine turned back to the group with his hands stuffed into his pockets. "What's that all about?"

"Rachel probably doesn't trust you, dude," Puck said, taking a swig of his questionable drink in his red solo cup while his eyes remained fixated on the TV screen. "No offense, but you don't really match the image in our minds of what we imagined Kurt's future boy toy to look like."

Blaine shrugged. "I probably wouldn't look like the kind of kid who would get nearly straight A's in ever class either though, right?"

"Are those the grades you get?" Artie asked a little timidly.

Blaine nodded. "You obviously didn't think so at first, though."

Meanwhile, downstairs, Kurt, Tina, Mercedes and Rachel were arguing like crazy.

"What is wrong with you, all of you?" Kurt demanded.

"You can't just invite someone into my house," Rachel shot back.

"Okay, you know what? I admit, maybe I should have asked you first. But if I told you for one second that I was bringing my boyfriend, you would have screamed and talked about how excited you were to hang out with _two gay boys_."

"That's not t-"

"And now that he's here, you're writing his personality off like a late slip."

"He was rude the minute I opened the door!"

"Not to mention he started to talk weirdly the moment he came upstairs," Mercedes added.

"Kurt," Tina tried to say sweetly, but at the moment, even Tina could annoy Kurt. "We're just concerned for you. Maybe this isn't the right kind of guy to be hanging around with."

"How would you know anything about that?" Kurt snapped. He was completely done talking about this. "You don't even know him."

"We don't need to know every aspect of his life to know that he hooks up with the entire town and he smells like a walking cigarette."

"I don't mean to sound rude, but he just screams trouble," Tina added. "We want to look out for you. Getting your heart broken by this guy is going to sting."

"_You don't even know him,_" Kurt was on the verge of tears. He didn't even get to sit down before he got into an argument. "To you he may be what you think he is, but he's so different with me, and maybe, just maybe I was hoping that tonight, a night where you're supposed to start all over again, you guys would actually try to get to know him and maybe he'd like you, too. You know, this whole club talks a big game about being different and embracing your flaws and treating everyone as equals. And then something like this happens, and suddenly you act the polar opposite of what you preach. I'm so tired of this. I really, really like Blaine, and you guys can't even let me be with him in peace without sticking your noses into our business."

Kurt turned on his heel and marched towards the door, beginning to slip his feet into his boots.

"Where are you going?" asked Rachel. Kurt grabbed his peacoat and buttoned it up.

"I shouldn't have come here tonight. You guys can act like you care about me so much, when in reality it's just because you don't want to meet someone like Blaine."

"Don't you think you're over reacting a little bit, Kurt?" Tina said.

"I have a right to be!" Kurt crossed his arms defensively.

"Can't we at least talk about it?" Rachel pleaded, trying to get Kurt to stay.

"I already tried that, and it didn't work," Kurt snapped back. Just then, Blaine appeared at the end of the stairs, somehow sensing Kurt's distress. He took one look at Kurt and knew that now was probably the best time for them to leave.

"Kurt-" the girls tried to stop him again.

Kurt's mitten-covered hand grabbed Blaine's and started to lead themselves to the door. "Let's go," Kurt said to Blaine and to Blaine only. He allowed himself to be towed to the door where he slipped his shoes on without doing the laces, and he quickly threw on his worn out jacket.

"It was nice meeting you ladies!" Blaine flashed a toothy, full smile before the door slammed shut, courtesy of an annoyed Kurt.

As soon as they were out the door, Kurt sped walked to the car. He had longer legs, so this was an advantage when it came to walking really fast. Blaine jogged up to him to keep up. It was pretty cold outside, with light flakes of snow falling to the ground gracefully, but it wasn't enough snow to cover the ground entirely.

"Wait up!" Blaine called out, but Kurt had already climbed into the passenger seat of his car. Blaine sighed and ran up to the car, opening the door and sitting onto the freezing, stiff leather. Ahh, nothing better than car cold.

"Damn, why do you walk so damn fa - hey," Blaine said, "What - What's the matter?"

Kurt was slightly crying, a few traitor tears managed to escape his eyes. Kurt's arms were still crossed over his chest, probably because he was both cold and upset. Blaine cranked up the heater in the car and turned to Kurt, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not fair," Kurt whined. "They ruin everything. They didn't say one word to you and they already decide they -"

"Babe, I _told_ you, I don't give a shit about what they think," Blaine explained, his voice going soothing. "Their opinions couldn't mean less to me right now."

Kurt eyed the clock on the dashboard with blurry eyes. It was only about nine, and Kurt didn't want to go home so early, especially on New Years Eve.

"Take me somewhere," Kurt begged. "Anywhere. Just not my house."

"Why not?" Blaine asked.

"I don't want to explain to my dad why I'm home so early. Please, I'm so exhausted. I'm just tired." Kurt wiped away a tear with the heel of his palm. "Take me anywhere. Take me to a your house, or a McDonalds, anywhere but my house. Please."

Blaine blinked at "take me to your house."

"I don't know if you want to see my house," Blaine warned. He was so embarrassed of having people over due to his mother. He didn't know if she would be home tonight, because when she isn't home, she either works late at her office job and doesn't come home until the late hours of the night...or spending her nights out drinking and buying cigarettes from different convenient stores. Blaine hoped that she wouldn't be up, screaming.

Kurt snorted, smiling a bit. "After that, I think anywhere is better than here. Just...drive. It's still so early, and we have around four hours of the year left."

Blaine stared at him for a long, long time, and he drove. He didn't tell Kurt about how rough his mom could get, or how he wished he could kiss Kurt's tears away, or that he was actually on the stairs, listening to Kurt argue with the girls about him the whole time. He decided that he would just keep quiet for now and let Kurt cool down.

_AN: I made Tina, Mercedes and Rachel a little unrealistic, oh well._


	28. Scandals

_AN: I didn't like the christmas episode of glee...it kind of let me down...I was expecting more klaine stuff and they made Kurt seem really uncomfortable around Blaine (I don't blame him) and I was so upset about Burt, and everything else in the episode bored me. I dunno, I feel bad for not liking the klaine stuff but I guess that's just how it is. I still love them to death, though. Also, I'm sorry i didn't update in a while, I wanted to have this done earlier but I got the part of the director in my drama exam and my group is a tiny bit lazy (which is funny, because our play is about a group of dysfunctional actors) so I have lots of things to do for that. _

"I was kidding about the McDonalds thing, you know."

"Hey, a high-calorie, freezing cold treat cheers anyone up."

Kurt's cheeks were slightly puffy by the time Blaine drove up to the giant yellow M. To be honest, Kurt ate fast food a little more than he'd like to admit (being raised by Burt did that to you.) It was around 9:20 pm and the night was cold. Most people in Lima would be cooped up inside their houses, watching the New Years ball drop on TV.

They ended up going through the drive through and ordering a large strawberry milkshake with two straws. Kurt didn't ask how Blaine knew that strawberry was his favorite. It was probably just a lucky guess, but so far, it was making up for Kurt's lousy night. Kurt sipped on the frozen, thick liquid. Yum, synthetic food.

"So, my young friend," Blaine sighed, leaning back into the seat and keeping a hand on the wheel, "Where is our next destination?"

Kurt sipped on his drink thoughtfully, not knowing where to go. He didn't want to go home immediately or else his dad would wonder why he was home so early, and he didn't want Blaine to be the one to explain why. It was freezing outside and almost every place was closed due to the fact that it was New Year's Eve.

"I don't know," Kurt sighed. His hand was beginning to become numb from the cold paper cup. "Everything is closed."

Blaine drummed his fingers against the rubber steering wheel idly. He appeared to be in thought. "Fuckin' New Years. It doesn't mean a thing."

Kurt smirked, his eyes fixated on the road ahead. "You don't like new beginnings?"

"I hate _New Years_," Blaine corrected. "It's the time where like...everyone pretends to be sentimental even though they probably had a really shitty year, and they keep making dumb excuses like, "oh, I'm going to loose weight and start getting better in school and start putting myself out there so I can get fucked more often" when in reality, none of that stuff is gonna happen. It's all just a show, everyone wants to feel important all the time and it drives me insane. Why do people need to wait a whole year to start something? What's wrong with doing in the time they're in now? I'll tell you why. It's cause people are lazy as fuck."

Kurt didn't say anything. One of his favorite and least favorite things about Blaine was that he was so blunt about everything. Kurt was pretty blunt too, but not to the point where he would start getting into rambles with sweaty jocks (or, at least not physically.)

"I've got it," Blaine said out of the view, snapping his fingers.

"Got what?"

"Where we can go so we don't completely blow the night."

"Where?"

"Have you ever heard of Scandals?"

Kurt pursed his lips around the straw. "Um, yes. Isn't it the gay bar?"

"Oh, you cute little boy," Blaine shook his head. "Not just any gay bar. And it'll be a trip for you since you're a virgin to this stuff. To everything, really."

"Shut up," Kurt said. "I don't do bars."

"Have you ever even been to one?" Blaine asked, quirking one of his triangle shaped eyebrows.

"No-"

"Then how will you know till you've tried?" Blaine asked, shrugging. "You might love it. You might even love it so much that you'll come every night and order Shirley Temples and hook up with old men who have tattoos of their mothers on their asses."

"Shut up," Kurt said, laughing a little bit. "Haven't we discussed the no-peer pressuring thing? I swear we did."

Blaine chuckled. "Relax. I'm not gonna force you to go."

Silence.

"What's it like inside one of those places?"

"You talk about it like it's a slave dungeon."

"It is if you want to get herpes."

"Fair play. I don't know. It's kind of fun when you get drunk, and even more when you're high. As long as you don't let any creeps in cheap wigs try to pick you up, and keep your shit away from anyone who looks suspicious in danger of anything getting slipped into it. Or you know, a false eyelash."

Kurt sipped on his milkshake again. "What would they do if I came inside with this?" Kurt waved his cup in the air.

"They'd go wild and I'd be the one who would have to rescue you from all the pointed dicks coming in your direction. They eat virgins up."

Kurt knew Blaine was kidding, but he blushed at the thought of Blaine and himself dancing in a darkened room, his senses dulled. Kurt had been drunk a small amount of times and none of them ended well, mostly resulting in vomit all over his guidance councilor's shoes and a head ache with a force as strong as a hurricane the next day.

"Maybe...we could try it?" Kurt suggested in a small voice.

Blaine kept his eyes on the road, but lifted his eyebrow again, smiling a little bit in a mischievous way. "Seriously?"

"I don't want to be the reason why I ruined New Year's Eve."

"Hey," Blaine said a little softer, "That wasn't on your account. It was your friends being idiots. Sorry. But it's true."

"I know. I still think I want to go though. I've never...I don't know, done _bad _things before. I'm not saying that going to bars are bad, but, I mean, I'm kind of sheltered in this stuff, and oh god I sound like an asshole."

"I get it, don't worry," Blaine smiled. "You're bored. You ache with adventure. You want to try new things. Just don't let that take advantage of you."

Blaine sped up the road and headed in the direction of the sole gay bar in Lima.

The two arrived at the squat building with a flickering pink sign on it. Kurt left his jacket inside the car so that he didn't have to carry it around all night, and Blaine took off his sweater in case he got too hot inside. Underneath, he wore a thin black t-shirt with a baggy neckline.

Kurt looked down at his own outfit and flicked his eyes back up to the pink sign, knowing he looked way to preppy to be dressed for a club. He had on a pair of tight-but-not-too-tight jeans, a dark red dress shirt with the buttons buttoned to the top and a navy blue sweater over top so that only the collar of the shirt was visible. Blaine could sense Kurt's tenseness and placed a hand on his waist assuringly.

"Don't worry," Blaine told him. "I was nervous when I went to my first club, too. And I was stupid enough to go alone, so I had no one watching my back or anything. Just stick with me, okay?"

"Where else would I go?" Kurt asked, snorting.

"Just have fun," Blaine told Kurt. "I won't drink as much. I'll be the designated driver if you want. It's New Years," Blaine winked and grabbed Kurt's hand, beginning to walk towards the building. "Make the best of these last few hours."

When they entered the room, Kurt was immediately hit with a wall of smoke and darkness. Music pounded from every where and he wasn't even fully into the room. There was a slightly over weight, bored looking man with a beard sitting at the front desk, and it surprised Kurt when he didn't even ask Blaine for any ID.

"I come here a lot," Blaine explained.

And then they stepped into the crowded room and...Kurt hadn't seen anything like it. It certainly wasn't royalty, that was for sure, but it was...different in an almost captivating and _scary_ way. Dark magenta and blue lighting from the ceiling flashed onto the small dance floor below, and a tiny bar with a few round stools and a television were at the front of the room. The men on the dance floor moved both slowly and quickly at the same time, and it was clear to see that almost all of them were either high, drunk, or both. Kurt took it all in with wide eyes.

Blaine noticed this and wasn't sure if Kurt was comfortable or not. He put an arm both protectively and comfortingly around Kurt. "What'dya think?"

Kurt blinked, taking all of this in again. It was crowded and loud and there were too many things to see, but...

"I...It's kind of mesmerizing in a way," Kurt replied. "Is that weird?"

Blaine couldn't help but give a soft laugh. Kurt was so adorably oblivious sometimes that it gave Blaine a sweet tooth. He wanted Kurt to have a good time tonight, but he would have to keep an eye on him since this was his first time and because of the gay predators (although a lot of the people who came here were pretty harmless.)

"No," Blaine said, watching Kurt watch everything else. "Not really."

"Okay," Kurt said, just registering that Blaine had an arm around him, "Take me for my first shot of poison ever. I'm sure I'll regret it, but I'll literally guzzle down real poison if it'll get the sound of Rachel's voice out of my head."

Blaine chuckled and patted Kurt on the small of his back, steering him towards the little bar with fluorescent blue light coming from the table. They sat at the stools, the buff guy with a nipple piercing and pink highlights serving them something that Blaine had ordered since he was the expert.

The boys sat on stools with their knees touching, facing each other. Blaine held the glass of orange substance in between both of them. He took an average sized gulp and swallowed, holding the glass out to Kurt. Kurt wrinkled his nose.

"How do you do that so easily?"

"Years of practice, young grasshopper," Blaine winked. "Hold your breath if you want and don't swallow too fast or it will come right back up."

Kurt nodded and took the glass from Blaine. Blaine watched him intently, scrutinizing his face and waiting for either a hilarious or surprising reaction. Kurt took Blaine's advice as the liquid poured into his mouth. He slowly swallowed and a burning sensation travelled down his throat. The taste clung to the roof of his mouth. He wasn't foreign to this feeling, however he wasn't completely used to it. Not like how Blaine was. Once again Kurt wrinkled his nose and coughed a little bit, but thankfully, Blaine's advice worked and he didn't feel sick or remorseful afterwards.

Blaine gave a smile. "So?"

"Weird," was all Kurt could say. Blaine laughed. "I though you'd say that."

Kurt took another sip. And another, and another. Soon he found himself talking to Blaine in a much faster, clumsier voice. He started to giggle at random things in the room, like how that man over there in the corner was wearing pink heels, and oh god, that guy totally can't dance. Blaine found buzzed Kurt completely amusing. He liked Kurt any way- bitchy, vulnerable, sweet... however this Kurt was pretty funny, if you asked Blaine.

Three more cups of whatever-that-stuff-was later (as Kurt liked to call it,) Kurt had turned into a more lively, bold, and dare he say it? Sassier version of himself. Long story short, Kurt was drunk. It was only quarter to eleven.

It turned out Kurt was certainly the laughy type of drunk. Kurt loved to laugh at everything, and normally Blaine would be irritated by now, but Kurt's intoxicated laugh along with his bright eyes and over-dressed outfit just made Blaine love him all the more.

Love.

Blaine certainly wasn't drunk, however he had a slight buzz. Buzzes usually lasted a couple of minutes for Blaine and they faded pretty quickly. He wanted to keep an eye on Kurt and make sure he kept his word on being the driver home. Just then, a pretty poor mashup of _Let's Have a Kiki_ and _Marry The Night_ came on, but Kurt who was shimmying in his seat didn't seem to mind.

"Oh my god," Kurt smiled. "These are like, two of my favorite artists in _one_, Blaine."

"I see that," Blaine nodded.

Kurt started snapping his fingers to the song and tried to sing along, but it was difficult granted it was a terrible mashup. "Wow Blaine, it feels like I'm doing a great job. At dancing, I mean. The glee club is so stupid. Stupid Mr. Schue who can't speak a single word of spanish, telling me what to do in that god awful club. _Ir chupar una polla, _Mr. Schue," Kurt laughed and hiccuped.

"How're you feeling, babe?" Blaine asked. Kurt shifted from his seat into Blaine's lap, toying with the curly hair at the back of his neck.

"So good, Blaine, really good. Like I can fly."

"Are you sure you're not high?" Blaine chuckled, but in a seductive voice. His face was dangerously close to Kurt's. Kurt could see the hazel specks in his boyfriend's eyes, and in that moment, they just looked so, so pretty. Kurt could also feel Blaine's hand rubbing small circles into his back.

"Your eyes remind me of starlight," Kurt murmured. "Like when you look up and see the stars? That's what its like. The rest of you is hard and solid like a rock, and then you have your eyes that are so damn pretty. Why can't I be like that too, Blaine? How come I have to be the one who looks like a girl? Why do I get shoved into lockers? I wish I was tough, Blaine. I wish I was tough like how you are."

Even though Kurt said this with a total drunken gaze complete with a smile, Blaine still couldn't ignore the pang in his chest when his boyfriend said this. Getting alcohol into his system was starting to make him reveal things he would usually never talk about, like his bullying and how he felt insecure, no matter how hard he tried to bottle it inside and mask it with designer clothes and a straight posture. It was there, and always would be there.

"Come on," Blaine said into Kurt's ear, trying to distract him. "Let's go dance."

"Okay," Kurt agreed whole heartedly. He certainly liked the idea of that song. Another Scissor Sisters song, _Baby Come Home_, started playing loudly.

"Gay bands for the gay bars," Kurt giggled.

Blaine led them both to the center of the floor, where they were surrounded by couples dancing, but Kurt didn't even notice. Part of which was because he was drunk and not even sweaty jocks could bother him. But also, it was because of the way Blaine's warm, bare arms wrapped around him. Or the way Blaine moved against him steadily, like he wasn't trying to be overly aggressive bit just enough for them to get into the rhythm of the song. It was enough to drive Kurt mad, even as a drunk man.

"I thought you were such a jerk," Kurt commented, bringing his arms to come around Blaine's back. "Oh my god, but you were _so hot_. One time I had a dream that we made out in a pool and I almost died when I woke up." Kurt paused to giggle again. Blaine smirked.

"Really?" The thought that Kurt actually had a thought like that made Blaine shiver a little.

"You turned out to be nice, though," Kurt said. "Thank god. You're like, one of those nice people that can be a jerk unintentionally, but you still have priorities, you know? Am I one of your priorities, Blaine?"

Blaine looked into Kurt's blue eyes, but the lighting them made them look almost entirely green.

And that's when Blaine realized that Kurt had become the most important people in his life in a short amount of time. The way that Kurt talked to him was so much different than how any other person would. Kurt and his family had taken Blaine in with open arms. No teacher, no mother, no adult, hell, not even_ he_ had ever done that for him. Blaine needed to take a moment to inhale and swallow a strange feeling in his throat.

"You're... you mean so much to me, Kurt," Blaine replied, in an almost broken whisper that barely even sounded over Jake Shears's voice singing about making love tonight.

Kurt smiled with enough brightness to power a thousand suns. He leaned in and sloppily kissed Blaine's lips with a "yaaaay!" Blaine rested his forehead against his boyfriend's, and grabbed the small of his back.

"What are you doing?" Kurt asked, his lips moving against Blaine's.

"Have you ever danced like this before?" Blaine emphasized his point by gently rolling his hips upwards and...oh.

"No," Kurt breathed, his cheeks glowing hot red. "Not at all."

"I'm assuming you don't dance like this in glee?" Blaine teased lightly, kissing Kurt on the corner of his mouth. Kurt shook his head. Kurt's eyes shifted from playful to aroused.

"How...how-" Kurt began, but Blaine cut in.

"Like this," Blaine was whispering in his ear now. "I'll show you. Take it easy, nice and slow, like this." Blaine gripped Kurt's lower back so that Blaine's fingers splayed past the waistband of Kurt's jeans. One of Kurt's hands came to grip Blaine's forearm, while the other one lay draped around his shoulder. Kurt tentatively began to move his hips the way Blaine was doing, like how Blaine was teaching him. It was the first time Kurt had ever learned how to grind, and he was doing it in the middle of a crowded dance floor. But he didn't care.

Blaine was the first person to ever make Kurt feel sexy like this, feel confident in this kind of way, alcohol or not. Kurt knew that. Even the first time that he'd had intimacy with Blaine in Kurt's room...Kurt had never felt like he was actually desirable until that moment. He'd always thought he was some awkward, lanky, skinny kid with no body shape and an effeminate face. But when he was with Blaine, even a long kiss and the feeling of Blaine's callused hands on his face made him feel like he could be desirable, too. Even though Kurt _wasn't_ like those helpless girls in movies where they needed a man's approval to feel loved or special, it still was nice once in a while to feel a little bit spontaneous and sexy, even though he knew he could feel good about himself in other ways.

Blaine noticed a couple of punk, smug looking guys starring directly at Kurt's ass and not trying to be subtle about their analyzing, however Blaine managed to scare them away with one glare. Suddenly, Blaine felt two hands cup either sides of his neck and another sloppy kiss was placed against his lips. They were both sweating from all the dancing, bit neither of them cared.

"Can we leave?" Kurt asked. "Can we go to you house?"

Blaine licked his lips and thought about his mother. He didn't know if she was home or not, and he honestly didn't care. She wouldn't need to meet Kurt right now anyway, and she'd most likely be too wasted to open her eyes anyway.

"Would your - your dad mind?"

"_Blaine_," Kurt whined, and Blaine nodded. He'd never brought a boy as beautiful as Kurt home before.

They got into the car.

_Ten._

They sped down the road

_Nine._

The drive way came into view.

_Eight._

Fumbling hands and jingling keys.

_Seven._

Kurt, who was too drunk to notice the broken gate, the flickering light at the main entrance, the house Blaine was embarrassed about.

_Six._

No signs of the monster mother. Probably passed out in her room or the couch.

_Five._

Inside the most normal room in the entire house, Blaine's room.

_Four._

Bodies tumbled onto the bed, hands gently smoothed down surfaces. Quiet moans and whimpers emitted.

_Three._

The breathing got quicker and quicker, lips shaped together and created loud, wet smacks. Blaine's shirt somehow managed to disappear, and Kurt had never seen something more beautiful.

_Two._

"I love you, Blaine," Kurt whispered in a drunken slur. And it still sounded genuine.

_One._

Blaine hesitated, and paused, and kissed Kurt's bare neck. "Fuck, I love you."

_Happy New Year!_

Suddenly, everything else was easy.

_AN: Haha oh my god, I actually kind of got restless writing the last part! I'll reveal next chapter what exactly Kurt and Blaine did. Also, I used google translate for the spanish so please don't judge me if you speak it well. I'm more of a french speaker._


	29. Happy New Year

When Kurt woke up, the inside of his head was on fire. And maybe that could even be an understatement.

Kurt rolled onto his back, his eyes sealed shut as a distressed moan dragged out from his lips. It felt like his limbs just completely gave up, like the left and right side of his body were having an intense argument and couldn't make a final decision. Kurt was hungry and resented the idea of food at the same time. He was cold, but hot. Kurt wished his soul could just float out of his body so that he didn't need to feel like crap.

How did this even happen?

Knowing better, Kurt slowly and cautiously began to open his eyes. Thankfully, the sun from outside wasn't in view due to the fact that it was dead winter and they sky was usually a smoggy greyish-blue. The light did manage to poke in a little, and it made Kurt's eyes twitch.

Kurt took a deep breath and held in as he rolled over onto his left side. His face got half-buried under the sheets and that's when Kurt noticed, even in his headache haze, that these were not his bedsheets. He came face to face with not his usual maroon cotton sheets, but instead with plain black ones. Kurt's eyes widened, and very very slowly, he moved his hand down his own chest until he reached his stomach. He wasn't wearing his shirt.

The events were blurry and choppy and didn't come to Kurt in chronological order, but they were there, the events from last night starting to break through the fog surrounding Kurt's brain. He started to remember the bar, the dancing, yelling at his friends, and so many other things that didn't make sense to him. What he remembered most out of all those things was being pulled onto a crammed floor full of bodies moving to the pulse of the music playing, feeling something strong wrap around him.

Kurt jerked his body upwards and sat up in the bed he was on, and immediately let out a small cry of pain as he received instant head rush. He fell backwards onto the soft sheets and pillows, one of his hands clutching at his forehead. It felt like there was a marching band having an unorganized rehearsal inside his head.

Even more than that, though...Kurt was frightened.

Not in a nervous way either, in a genuine way where he thought he might start crying if he didn't get answers now. He was so drunk last night that everything was fuzzy. Kurt had no idea if he had sex with Blaine last night. He didn't even remember getting to Blaine's house, let alone in his bed without a shirt on. Slowly, Kurt lifted Blaine's sheets and saw that a pair of pepper grey sweatpants sagged low on his hips. Kurt let out a sigh of relief that he wasn't met with his own bare legs, but that still didn't answer his question: did he lose his virginity last night? And how did he get into a pair of sweatpants?

Kurt started to internally panic. He knew he needed to calm down if he wanted his hangover to get better, but he couldn't help it. He was lying down half naked in a boy's room, not knowing anything that happened to him last night. It's not that he was opposed to having sex with Blaine. Maybe he wasn't 100% ready yet, but he had thought about it before, and he wasn't completely a prude considering he'd done more than just kiss with Blaine before. But if they _had_ had sex last night, then that would mean Kurt's worst nightmare was coming true - having one of the most notable, delicate human experiences happening to him and him not remembering it. He didn't want it to be some drunken quickie where nothing was processed. No...Kurt wanted the opposite of that.

Speaking of which, where was Blaine?

Forcing his lower lip to stop trembling and blinking his eyes until they were fully open, Kurt rolled over until he was at the edge of the bed. He sat up and took a few minutes for his head to stop swimming. When he finally felt stable enough, he stood up, his knees shaking a little bit. Kurt was deciding if this was just his hangover or if it was a result of what he could have done the previous night.

Kurt needed to lean against Blaine's wall until he could make his way to the door before remembering that he didn't have a shirt on. He spotted a black one on the ground that was most likely Blaine's. Kurt tried to ignore the fact that it was a little unsanitary for him to just pick up a shirt off the floor, but he needed to find Blaine. Before leaving the room, however, Kurt stopped for a moment to truly take in what he was looking at.

Blaine's room was...actually pretty hospitable. When Kurt first saw Blaine walk late into class the first day he met him, he imagined Blaine's room to be full of posters of naked women, condom packages and food wrappers on the floor, the stereotypical works. But instead, Blaine's room was mostly tidy with the exception of Kurt's clothes (oh, _there _they were) and some of Blaine's sleepwear on the floor. Blaine had a bed, a dresser and a bookshelf just like any other kid would have. There was a bedside table with a glass bottle and a package of cigarettes on it, but that was probably the most menacing thing inside of the room. Kurt actually kind of liked it. The different shades of blues, blacks and browns looked nice together and gave off a masculine feel, but it definitely didn't look like it would be Blaine's room. It also smelt pretty nice inside, too, even though Blaine probably smoked in his room.

Kurt opened the door and was met with a hallway. Making his way down, he saw pictures on the walls with their glass frames cracked and in the process of breaking completely. Behind these damaged frames were pictures of what Kurt thought was Blaine's family. Kurt saw a photo of a man, a woman and a baby boy. The baby was obviously Blaine, due to the wild, unkept curls and big eyes. Holding the baby was a beautiful woman. She had long, dark hair and eyes that looked like Blaine's. Her smile was radiant and her eyes were bright. The man sitting next to her was also smiling. His hair was curly as well, and big sunglasses masked the man's eyes from the sun since the photo was taken outside. Kurt assumed that this was probably Blaine's dad. Kurt knew vaguely about the issues Blaine and his family had, but if the stories Blaine mentioned were true, then why were there still pictures up in his house?

Trying to get himself to walk straight, Kurt made his way down the stairs very carefully, holding onto the railing. Still no sign of Blaine. However, when Kurt made it fully down the stairs without fainting or falling down, he was met with a woman lying down on the couch in the living room, and he froze.

The woman was dressed in work clothes that looked like they had gone through hell. They were wrinkled and starting to loose color, and the buttons on her white blouse didn't match up with the holes. Her hair was starting to fall out of its messy bun, and she had on so much red lipstick and dark eyeliner. Kurt couldn't even tell how old this person was. Dangling from her fingers was a lit cigarette, and on the floor beside the couch was a glass full of something clear. Kurt had a feeling it wasn't water. Kurt stared at the woman curiously, observing her like she was an unknown species. She reminded Kurt of a sleepy cat.

The woman opened her eyes, and Kurt flinched. She didn't even notice Kurt until he gasped, and her eyes moved slowly, like rolling pinballs until they landed on him. She didn't even look surprised that there was a stranger in her house.

Kurt's eyes stayed locked on the woman's. She slowly brought her cigarette up to her lips and inhaled, puffing out a thin stream of smoke without breaking eye contact.

"Well, aren't you a cute one," said the woman, tapping her cigarette ashes into the ash tray below lazily. This woman looked beat up and tired, and her actions and voice showed it, but for some reason, this lady was intimidating. Kurt felt nervous around her, with her heavy make up and hoarse voice. It looked like she was the kind of woman who could pick out every little insecurity Kurt had and eat him alive.

When Kurt said nothing, the woman spoke again. "Pear hips and a girly face, but Blaine would fuck anything."

Kurt blinked when the woman said Blaine's name. The woman spoke again. "Are you mute or something? I'd understand, Blaine has a tendency to go after the weird ones."

"I-I'm sorry?" Kurt said, testing out his voice for the first time that morning. It was clear and shy and showed his hangover.

"Are you another one of that boy's whores?"

"What - I'm not-"

"Fine," the woman sighed, "Man whore, professional prostitute, whatever you prefer."

"No," Kurt said, but he didn't dare say it in a stuck up way. He didn't want to make this woman upset. "I'm-I'm Blaine's boyfriend..."

The woman took another long drag from her cigarette before speaking again, snorting at Kurt's words. "Boyfriend, that's a good joke. That child will never have a boyfriend. He's too much of a fuck up."

The room was beginning to smell stronger and stronger of smoke, but Kurt was too nervous to move. This woman had him in a death stare, freezing him to the floor.

"What's your name?" the woman asked.

"K-Kurt Hummel, m'am," Kurt replied.

"Tell me, Kurt," the woman smirked, "How's your home life?"

Kurt didn't know if this woman actually wanted him to answer, but the silence implied that he should. "Um, it's...good."

"Let me guess," she went on, never moving from her slouched position, "Pretty boy with good grades and lots of friends, lives in a big happy family, eats well, never smokes or drinks...the pretty little virgins is what my boy likes best."

So, this was Blaine's _mother? _She looked nothing like the woman in the photo Kurt had seen just a few moments ago. Kurt felt like he was being exposed from the inside out at what this lady was saying. It was like this woman hated him and was trying everything possible to tear him open with her intense eyes. Kurt just stared at him with innocent, big blue eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Kurt's head jerked to where the new voice was coming from, and winced when he moved too fast and gave himself another head rush. Blaine was standing there, sweatpants and no shirt on, his curls in a disarray, and Kurt blushed. He was carrying a small plastic bottle and a water bottle in his hand. Blaine's face didn't look impressed, and for a moment Kurt thought that Blaine was talking to him, but then he noticed that Blaine's attention was fixated on the woman on the couch. She didn't look at him.

"What did you say to him?" Blaine growled.

"If you're going to have a one night stand, at least have the decency to go to some cheap motel or something. Bringing whores into your own house is the best way to spread disease."

"Fuck off," Blaine said in a final tone, and walked over to Kurt quickly. He placed a hand on the small of Kurt's back and started to steer him towards the stairs, muttering "come on" into Kurt's ear.

"You fuck off, faggot," the woman called back, and Kurt flinched, starting to go up the stairs a bit faster. He didn't like the aura of that woman. It was too intense and the feeling of being over-scrutinized didn't go away when he was with her.

When the boys finally made it to Blaine's room, Blaine slammed the door shut hard. The noise echoed throughout Kurt's brain, making him squeeze his eyes shut and making his shoulders jump. Blaine apologized and grabbed Kurt's arm, gently guiding him to sit down on the bed.

Kurt watched Blaine struggle with the tight lid on the Advil bottle, trying to get one of the little pills out to give to Kurt. So that's where Blaine was; he was probably getting medicine for Kurt.

"Um, Blai-" Kurt started.

"I'm sorry about her," Blaine mumbled angrily, not meeting Kurt's eyes and still trying to open the container. "She's just an evil bitch. Don't listen to anything she says. I didn't know you'd be awake by now. Just. Don't go down there again without me, okay?"

Kurt nodded. "Okay."

Blaine finally got the lid to come off, and a tiny yellow pill slid out onto Blaine's palm. He twisted the cap off of the water bottle. "Take this, it'll help you feel better. Not right away of course, it's gonna take at least a few hours to-"

Blaine stopped mid sentence when he was met with his boyfriend's face. His eyebrows were furrowed and those giant cerulean eyes were rimmed with fresh tears.

"Woah, hey," Blaine said, "What's the matter?"

"Blaine," Kurt said, his voice breaking on the name, "Be honest with me. Last night, did we...um, did we have sex?"

Blaine's eyes immediately softened. He put the cap back on the water bottle and moved to wrap his bare arm around Kurt. "God no, Kurt. Of course we didn't. What did I tell you? I'm not that kind of monster."

Kurt visibly relaxed, his eyes falling shut and a sigh of relief leaving his body. Blaine thought back to last night. So then...Kurt must have not remembered.

There was so, so much heat. Blaine's shirt was discarded on the floor, and Kurt's hands were roaming all over the contours of Blaine's back and chest. Kurt kept moaning into Blaine's soft, full lips every time they made contact.

"I love you, Blaine," Kurt breathed out. Even drunk, his voice still sounded so goddamn innocent and honest and pure. And Blaine loved him too, he loved him too.

They just kept kissing and kissing and kissing, like they couldn't kiss enough. It was the first time that Blaine had seen Kurt without a shirt on. After months of seeing Kurt with all his stylish layers on, Blaine finally took in the pale but flushed skin, the subtle muscle around Kurt's arms, his taught stomach and skinny waist. Blaine could tell that sometimes Kurt was embarrassed by his skinniness, but as Blaine took in what he was seeing now, he couldn't understand why someone like Kurt would be ashamed.

"Baby," Blaine breathed, kissing his way down Kurt's body. "Fuck."

Kurt replied by breathing heavily and running his hands through Blaine's hair. He brought his lips up to meet Blaine's again, and everything began to get hotter and hotter once more. Blaine usually didn't care for make-outs too much, but this was so much different. This was Kurt.

"Mmm, Blaine," Kurt panted into Blaine's ear as they continued to explore each other's mouthes. Tongues battled for dominance, and Blaine was surprised when Kurt rolled them over so that Kurt was on top of Blaine, straddling him and arching back back towards Blaine. Blaine looked at Kurt with wide eyes, but didn't have time to say anything because Kurt's lips were smashing down onto Blaine's. And as great as this felt right now, Blaine thought at the back of his mind: what would sober Kurt think about all of this? Would he really be ready to do what they were doing now?

"Blaine, I want to," Kurt slurred, dragging his lips across Blaine's, "I want you inside me."

Blaine never turned down an offer for sex. But this was his first ever boyfriend. And he was completely wasted but still so unsure of things on the inside. No, there was no way he could do this to Kurt. There was no way he was about to take advantage of him, especially not in a moment of weakness.

"Kurt, sto-" Kurt kissed him again, reaching down to unbutton Blaine's jeans. Kurt's clumsy fingers fumbled with the zipper, but before he could pull it down, Blaine's hands gently but firmly gripped Kurt's wrists, bringing them up between their chests. "Kurt, stop. You're not thinking."

"I am," Kurt whined, and leaned down to kiss Blaine again. Blaine quickly flipped them over so that Blaine was pinning Kurt down to the sheets, the mattress squeaking in protest.

"Kurt, stop that," Blaine said sternly. "No more tonight. You've had enough. I'm not doing this with you when you're like this."

"Please," Kurt whimpered pleadingly, and god, it was _so_ _difficult _for Blaine to say no to that. Want filled in his eyes (and in other places,) but he shook his head, trying to block those thoughts away as Kurt continued to beg.

"Please Blaine," he said, "Please, I promise I'll be good, I really want to, pl-"

Blaine gently placed the hand that wasn't holding Kurt's wrists over his mouth, giving him one hard, final look that declared that the discussion was finished. "No, Kurt. Not right now, okay? I promise...one day. Just not right now. Alright?"

Kurt pouted when Blaine took his hand away, but nodded a little sadly. Blaine moved off of the bed to snatch some pajamas from his closet, and an extra pair of sweatpants for Kurt too. Kurt was squirming around on purpose and laughing really loudly when Blaine tried to take his pants off to exchange them for the sweatpants.

"Hold still, you," Blaine said, trying to pin down Kurt's legs.

Kurt was still laughing. "Get off of me, you big dummy."

Blaine rolled his eyes, but finally managed to get Kurt into the sweatpants. Kurt sighed happily when Blaine crawled up the bed.

"Comfy," Kurt murmured, stretching his legs inside the cozy, cotton pants. When Blaine reached over to turn off the lamp, Kurt pounced on Blaine and hugged him tight. Blaine froze. He was never used to affectionate physical contact, and he'd never received hugs as a child that much either. Kurt hummed happily into Blaine shoulder and hugged him tightly, and a strange swelling sensation filled Blaine's heart. Drunk or sober, Kurt was always so, so sweet to Blaine. Even on Christmas when they were alone together in Kurt's room, or when Kurt was talking to Blaine over the phone when Blaine's mother was on a rampage, Kurt was just always emitting care and love towards Blaine. Blaine brought his arm around Kurt to hug him back, turning his nose inwards so that it was nestled in the crook of Kurt's neck.

"Tonight was so fun, Blaine," Kurt told him. "I had so so...so much fun. Thanks for making me feel better."

Blaine smiled at his boyfriend's words. Even though he was drunk, the words were still true. "I'm glad."

"I love you Blaine. I love you so much."

Blaine shut his eyes. He kissed Kurt on the shoulder where his favorite constellation of freckles started to peek from behind his shoulder. "I...love you too, Kurt."

When Kurt finally got to sleep that night after about ten more minutes of giggling and attempting to make out with Blaine, Blaine watched him. he watched the steady rise and fall of his chest and how the vague light outside illuminated his skin. Blaine had come so close to taking something away from this person tonight, and he was so glad he didn't. Even though Blaine loved the feeling of sex, there was no way he could ever take advantage of someone who actually _cared_ about him. Maybe at first he could've, but not now.

Blaine finally snapped back to reality from his flashback. Kurt was prying his fingers open to retrieve the pill, and Blaine opened his hand up for him, not realizing that he had shut his fist. Blaine rubbed Kurt's back as he swallowed the pill along with the water.

"Atta boy," Blaine smiled. "Jesus. I remember my first hangover. It sucked."

"Tell me about it," Kurt replied sarcastically.

"I should have given you the Advil before you fell asleep," Blaine said, sweeping Kurt's bangs from his forehead.

Kurt took another sip from the water bottle and asked, "Blaine, what exactly did we do last night?"

"Well," Blaine began, "Nothing you weren't ready for, I hope. Heavy making out. You came onto me a lot, Hummel."

Kurt blushed when Blaine sent him a wink. "Oh god."

"Yep."

"How bad was I?"

"Bad in what way?" Blaine asked. "If you mean crazy and out of control and saying stuff you'd probably be embarrassed about, then you definitely scored a ten out of ten." Blaine smirked when Kurt hid his face in his knees.

"But if you mean bad as in getting down and dirty?" Blaine quirked an eyebrow. "Not even close to bad."

Kurt lifted his face from his knees so that his chin was propped up on them instead. He tilted his head in a bashful manor, as if to say "_really?"_

After a few minutes, Kurt's head was still throbbing, however sitting still was helping to dull the pain a little bit. "Can you hand me my phone, please? I think it's in my pocket," Kurt pointed to his pair of jeans on the floor. Blaine snatched them off the floor and rummaged through the pockets until he pulled out a black iphone. He tossed it to Kurt, and the date on the phone said _January 1st, 2013._

Kurt smiled. He punched in the password to his phone and was greeted with a plethora of missed calls and text messages all from his dad.

"Crap," Kurt muttered, and threw himself into Blaine's pillows.

_AN: I'm finally on Christmas break. I don't know if I'll have another chapter updated by Christmas, but if I don't, then Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza and Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays to all of you (: I'm really excited because I get to see Les Mis on boxing day and I've been waiting for this movie forever. Also, I'm forcing myself to wait for SBL to come out in theaters. I could have easily watched it on itunes but I think it will be better if I see it in a movie theater for the first time :)_


	30. Something Right

_AN: Happy New Year! I have a confession to make everyone... I watched SBL before seeing it in theaters. I'm sorry! I promised myself I was going to wait until January 11th but I kept seeing so many gifsets and spoilers on tumblr and I caved in and watched it. I'm still going to see it in theaters, but it was absolutely amazing and I cried my eyes out towards the end. The writing was so smart and Chris and Alison Janney's acting stood out the most. Overall, it was a funny, honest and heartbreaking movie, I love love loved it, I think I would even like it even if I wasn't a fan of Chris. It's one of those movies where you can relate to at least one thing going on in it. The three year wait was totally worth it! Also, it has been one year since Darren has been on Broadway, and on the 12th will be one year since I saw him in it (:_

"Where on earth have you been?"

Burt's voice booming through the phone was making Kurt's head throb. "Dad, I'm sorry, just h-"

"Do you know how worried Carole and I were last night? We let you go off to one party and this is what happens? You didn't even call to let us know you were spending the night at Rachel's."

Kurt took a deep breath. "Dad, I didn't stay at Rachel's last night."

There was a long pause. "I want you home right now. Wherever you are, you'd better stop what you're doing and get here this instant."

Kurt hung up without another word. How was he supposed to tell his dad that he stayed at his boyfriend's house last night? There was no way that Burt's mind wasn't immediately going to start thinking about Kurt and Blaine having sex. Even though nothing happened (or, at least Blaine stopped things from happening, thanks to Kurt.)

That thought right there. That was a thought that made a warm feeling swell in Kurt's heart, even after he'd been yelled at by his dad. Kurt was an inexperienced, young, virgin teenage boy who had gotten drunk the night before. Even if Kurt _was _an experienced person sex-per se, he still wouldn't have known what was going on on account of how intoxicated he was. And then there's Blaine the opposite of Kurt. He was experienced and knew what he was doing. He wasn't drunk, he knew that Kurt was a virgin, and he knew that the drunk version of Kurt clearly wanted Blaine in that particular moment. And yet, Blaine still didn't do it. He somehow knew that the stable and sober Kurt wouldn't have given consent. Kurt was there, in that moment, and Blaine could have just taken whatever he wanted from him during that time period. And he didn't. He didn't because he knew Kurt wasn't ready. Blaine wasn't stupid, even if he appeared to be at times by his actions, but he wouldn't dare do anything to take advantage of Kurt when he was incapable of making his true decisions.

Kurt watched the back of Blaine as he put on a t-shirt. Kurt didn't even feel the tears welling in his eyes as he watched his boyfriend. How do you thank someone like that? How do you thank them for doing the right thing, for not taking advantage of you in a moment of weakness even though you know they could have, especially with a reputation as bad as Blaine's?

Blaine had said a million times, "I'm not that kind of monster." Now, Kurt could truly understand what Blaine was telling him.

"Is your dad pissed at you?" Blaine asked when he turned around. Kurt quickly ducked his head from where he was sitting on the bed and wiped away his tears, swallowing. "Yeah. He wants me to come home right now."

"Shit."

"Don't be nervous," Kurt said. "You didn't do anything. This is my fault."

"You told him you weren't at Rachel McBigMouth's?"

"Yes. I didn't tell him where I was yet."

"Are you gonna tell him you were with me?"

Kurt sighed. "He'll know I was with you. That's why he got all quiet on the phone. Who else would I be with that late at night? Partying with the jocks? I don't have anyone else to hang out with."

Blaine gulped. "Will you tell him about Scandals?"

"I don't know."

Blaine went silent and sat next to Kurt on the bed. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Maybe I should come with you."

"Why?"

"Just to set things clear. We didn't, you know, fuck last night, and he needs to know that. I don't know if it will help coming from me, but he should know."

"Blaine?" Kurt said, and Blaine sat up from his slouching position and turned to face Kurt.

"Thank you," began Kurt. "For last night."

"You never remember Scandals the first night you go, but if your dad is easy on us then maybe we can go again sometime."

"No, not that," Kurt shook his head. "Thank you for not...taking advantage of me. I don't know what else to say other than...you_ listened_ to me and understood me even before I was drunk. You knew I didn't want that, truly want that."

Blaine just stared at Kurt with disbelief. How could Kurt thank him for doing something so simple, something so logical that every man should be doing in a case like that? There was no need for Kurt to thank Blaine, Blaine thought.

But as he continued to look at Kurt, look at the wash of relief and gratefulness and gratitude, he knew that he must have done _something_ right.

"You're...you're welcome," Blaine said. Kurt just sucked his lips in, looking down at the ground for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut. Then he just nodded, smiled, and began to search for his clothes.

Later, after Kurt and Blaine had managed to make it out the door with Blaine's arm firmly around Kurt's waist as Blaine's mother continued to lay down on the sofa, smoking away and glaring at the boys, they had made it into Kurt's navigator. Since Kurt's head was still throbbing, Blaine drove. It seemed like they were going at the slowest pace possible, and Kurt didn't know if Blaine was driving this slow on purpose, if his hangover was slowing things down, or if the nervous feeling about talking to his dad was just making everything seem slow.

When they finally arrived at Kurt's house, the slow motion seemed to have occurred once more as they got out of the car. Kurt could see Burt's face now: red, round, angry, and ready to yell.

"I'm _responsible_," Kurt said. "He should know that."

The door was already unlocked when they got there, and when Kurt stepped inside, Blaine remained on the "welcome" mat outside the door. He stared at Kurt with worried, wide hazel eyes, shifting uncomfortably, resembling of a lost, kicked puppy.

"Come on," Kurt said encouragingly. "It's okay. It'll be okay."

When Kurt finally managed to get Blaine inside, Burt was already waiting in the living room, sitting in the reclining chair like a perfectly placed comic book villain waiting on the hero to show up. All he needed now was a fluffy cat to stroke as he spoke.

Burt didn't even acknowledge Blaine. All his attention was on Kurt. "So? You gonna tell me what happened?"

Kurt swallowed. "I spent the night at Blaine's last night. We only went to Rachel's for a few minutes, but then we left because of...problems."

Burt stared at him. What scared Blaine the most about his facial expression was that it was completely blank, so there was no telling what he was thinking.

"I see," Burt finally said.

"We didn't do anything, if that's what you're thinking," Kurt explained. "Which you probably are."

"You're nearly eighteen, Kurt," Burt said. "You should have been able to call me and tell me what you were doing. You stayed at someone's house that I had only met _two_ times before."

"I was safe there."

"I know you were. But you still didn't tell me where you were, and I would have liked to know since you didn't come home last night."

"I'm sorry," Kurt wilted.

"So am I," Burt said. "I'm a little disappointed in you, Kurt."

"I know."

"You'll be getting punishment for this."

"I know."

"Go upstairs to your room. I'll deal with you in a second."

"But-"

"Now."

Kurt gave Blaine one last look, since Blaine looked like he was about to pass out. Since he'd never had a boyfriend, he never had to deal with scary fathers. He reached out to squeeze Blaine's fingers gently before going up the stairs.

Blaine and Burt awkwardly exchanged glances.

"Tell me the truth," Burt said as gently as he could make his voice. "We've gotten on pretty good terms so far, and that's good. But I need you to tell me the truth. I'll get less mad if you're honest. Did you and Kurt have sex last night?"

"No," Blaine replied. "We didn't. We had...consensual intimacy, but there wasn't any sex. I swear."

"You swear?"

"I swear."

Burt stared at Blaine. "You know, if you and Kurt do happen to..you know, one day...maybe I wouldn't be the biggest fan in the world of it. But as long as you're both being safe, using protection and all, and it's consensual, then I guess that's your call."

"I understand," Blaine said.

"Blaine," Burt said. This was probably the first time that Blaine had heard Burt call him by his name. "Just please...don't take advantage of him."

"I promise," Blaine nodded. He would never.

Burt just nodded for the millionth time and stood up from his chair. "I should probably be furious with the both of you right now. I guess I can't punish you since you're not my kid."

Blaine snorted, and Burt smiled.

"Well," Burt said, "Thanks for letting Kurt stay at your place last night."

"It's no trouble."

"What happened at his friend's house last night?"

"They...weren't so glad that I was there, I guess."

"I see."

"Yep."

"I apologize about that, I always thought Kurt's friends were so bright and bubbly."

"That's how they seem at first, then you start to really get to know a person, what their intentions are, and what they truly think about a person."

Burt analyzed the way Blaine was speaking. For someone so apparently bad, he spoke with wisdom.

Kurt already knew this as he sat at the top of the stairs, secretly listening to his boyfriend and his father speak. And even though he awaited a punishment, at least he knew that his father wasn't blaming Blaine for anything, especially after what Blaine did for Kurt last night.


	31. Punishment

_AN: JOEY RICHTER IS GONNA BE ON GLEE! I'm so excited!_

_I still have a bit to go on this story, but I was wondering, who would read a kitty!kurt story if I wrote it after this one? When the kitty!kurt idea first was invented, I wasn't really that into it and I thought it was too childish for my liking, but I have grown to like kitty!kurt fics. They are so cute. So I just want to know if any of you guys would read that if I wrote it. It would probably be a shorter story than what I'm used to but I know that not everyone likes kitty!kurt. Please let me know._

"So what did you get?"

"I'm grounded for three weeks starting tomorrow," Kurt replied over his cell phone. "I'm not allowed to use my phone inside the house and I can only use it for emergencies outside my house. I'm on my laptop right now, trying to soak up as much internet as I can."

Blaine snorted.

"What did...my dad say to you?" Kurt asked. He already knew the answer since he was listening to the whole time, but he wanted to hear what Blaine had to say about it.

"Well, he gave me less of a punishment than you got."

"Meaning?"

"He didn't like, shoot me."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

"He asked me if we fucked, and I said no, because we didn't," Blaine said casually, but any sentence with the words "we" and "fucked" in it made Kurt blush, especially since his boyfriend was the one saying it to him.

Blaine continued. "He didn't really get mad at me that much. You could tell he was kinda pissed in the beginning but I think he knew I was telling the truth."

"I think he might be starting to trust you," Kurt said.

"Really? That soon?"

"I think so. I mean, he was a lot calmer that I expected him to be when I brought you over last minute for Christmas. And he was mad at first when he...you know. Walked in on us without even knocking, but he got over it. Are you sure you're not hiding your cheesy bad boy image from him?"

"Nope," Blaine said. "You're just a bad influence on me."

Kurt laughed.

"It's weird though," said Blaine. "I don't think I've ever had to meet someone's parents before."

"Really?" Kurt asked, rolling over on his stomach across his bed.

"Yeah. Because I've like, never had a boyfriend or a fake-girlfriend or anything like that."

Kurt froze. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah..." Blaine's voice sounded obvious, like Kurt should have already known this. "Yeah. Shit, haven't I told you that?"

"No," Kurt said in a small voice. Suddenly, he started to feel self-conscious. He had no idea that he was Blaine first boyfriend. Blaine didn't look like the kind of guy who had never had a boyfriend before.

"Wasn't it kind of obvious?"

"Well, you don't exactly look like the virginal type."

Blaine laughed like he just heard the funniest joke ever been told. "I wasn't talking about _virginity_, that's for sure. Kurt, I've had plenty of sex in my time, and I've done tons of stuff with tons of people, but can you imagine me with someone as equally fucked up as myself, having dinner with their family and watching sick romance movies together? No way in hell."

Kurt didn't say anything.

"...uh, sorry," Blaine said awkwardly. "I know that's probably something that you didn't want to hear."

"I know."

"But you know it happened before I met you, right? Like, I wouldn't cheat."

"I know, Blaine. It's fine. I'm not mad or anything because it's not like I knew the people you were with and I know you didn't cheat on me, it's just...a lot to take in."

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"It's fine."

"If it makes you feel weird, sorry, but that's kind of who I was and who I still kind of am. Christ, not the 'fucking everyone all at once' kind of thing, but the whole dramatic 'help me, I'm a delinquent child who's been misguided and I need soul searching!' type of person."

Kurt knew that Blaine hated it when people assumed that people who dressed in black and who liked to smoke, drink, and have a lot of sex automatically meant that they had fallen into the "wrong crowd." Kurt remembered one time late at night when they were outside the Lima bean in the parking lot, and Blaine was smoking and was talking to Kurt about how pissed off he was that the tiny blonde barista was afraid to look Blaine in the eye, and he had said to Kurt,

"When people say shit like, 'aw, poor little lost soul, how could you let people influence the way you think? How could you have traded your own sacred life and fallen into the wrong crowd of people?' like, holy fuck, that annoys me so much. People _think _that they're helping you and giving you advice when they say that, but really, I don't give a fuck and I'm not paying attention. You wanna know why? Because it's just another way for fucking society to judge people based on the way that they look. I mean, when you see people judging some nerdy looking kid with big ass glasses and a lot of books, then people go on a huge tangent about how it's wrong to judge others based on how they look, blah blah blah. Then you take someone like me and put them in front of those social justice-hipster wannabe's and then they can run their mouth for hours about how I'm a trouble maker and that I need to be reformed. Fuck all that sugar-coated bullshit. Maybe if they actually took the time to get to know me, they'd know that my mom and dad are assholes and that I haven't seen one of them literally since I was a kid. Maybe then, they'd know that I didn't fall into the 'wrong crowd' " - Blaine used air quotes with his fingers to signify that he was exaggerating his point - "and that I started hanging out with what society deems 'the wrong type of people' because I was trying to be cool or whatever. I was doing it to survive."

At that time, Kurt had just looked at Blaine for a very, very long time, so long that Blaine's cigarette started to shorten.

"I mean, how would you like it if some homophobic asshole came up to you and started making comments about how effeminate you are and how real men don't wear designer clothes? Wouldn't that make you feel like shit? Someone saying all that stuff about you before they even got to talk to you?"

Blaine just looked kind of sad after that, and that's when Kurt knew that Blaine was probably judged even more than Kurt was. Kurt just wanted to hug and kiss Blaine right there in that moment, but it looked like he just needed to have some silence inside his mind for a while.

Kurt blinked, coming back to the present time and date. "I know it's not bad, Blaine. I guess I'm just not used to it since I've never had to deal with it before."

"Does it bother you?" Blaine asked.

"Hmmm. I guess not. Maybe at first, since we didn't really like each other at first, but now I'm used to you. I know you know."

"I mean it though," Blaine said softly. "You're the first guy I've ever been with that's treated me like a human being."

Kurt smiled into his pillows.

After Kurt had gotten off the phone with Blaine, a popping noise sounded from his laptop. Kurt rolled over to his computer where Tina had tried to start a conversation on Facebook with him.

_Kurt, I'm sorry about what happened on New Years. Can I please call you so we can talk?_

Kurt rolled his eyes and logged out.

**MEANWHILE**

Blaine snapped his phone shut and set it by his bedside table. The sound of Kurt's voice soothed him, even if he was doing most of the talking in the conversation. He wouldn't be able to call or text Kurt for the next three weeks, but at least he would see him at school. He'd have to remind himself not to attempt to sext with Burt, if he was the one guarding Kurt's phone.

Blaine got up from his bed, rolled down the window since it was currently full of smoke, and went downstairs to get something to drink. His mom was, of course, lounging in her work clothes across the couch, her hair in a mangled mess. The TV blared some reality TV show that she wasn't even watching.

"That boy," she said when she saw Blaine. Blaine had almost jumped because he thought his mom was asleep, plus she never said anything to him anyway. "Is he really your boyfriend?"

Blaine turned his head away. "Yep."

'Why?" she asked.

"Because I like him."

"But you never stay committed."

Blaine stared at her. "What happened to you?"

"Your father."

"Forget about him, will you? He's nothing anymore. He's scum."

"I can't forget about him when he left a reminder of all the mistakes I ever made with me to take care of all on my own." She treated Blaine as if she were talking about a dead dog, but Blaine didn't even flinch at her words.

"I just wish you could stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"The pretty boy. I can't believe he wants you."

"His name is Kurt," Blaine said.

Angela (ex) Anderson stared at Blaine for the longest time, and then her features morphed into an angry, mocking smile. "You know nothing about love. You know nothing about what I had with that asshole, you know nothing about the struggles it takes. You're too young and stupid to know that."

Blaine just started walking into the kitchen to get something to drink. "Goodnight."


	32. To Forgive or Not to Forgive

_AN: I'm pretty sure I'm dead now because of all the amazing Klaine spoilers we got. I'm not going to list all of them since I'm assuming you've all heard of them, but WOW, COME WHAT MAY IS FINALLY OURS. We've been waiting for this song for far too long and now we have it. I'm so happy (:_

After a short-lived but much needed Christmas break, it was time for the complaining, sleepy-headed teenagers to head back to school. The nipping cold weather matched the way that most of the students felt about returning to school. There were so many things that Kurt needed to get done, like exams and rehearsing for regionals. Losing his internet and phone privileges put him into a funk like none other, so it didn't help lighten his mood. A teenager deprived of the internet use? Anarchy might as well ensue.

In the groggy morning, while Kurt was at his locker, he spotted Rachel walking down the hallway towards him. Kurt shut his locker and sneakily tried to walk away, but Rachel was tight on his trail.

"Kurt, wait-" Rachel began, and Kurt just rolled his eyes at her shrill voice.

"Kurt. Stop. I'd like to speak with you."

"Not interested," Kurt replied monotonously.

"But you didn't even hear what I have to say," Rachel offered.

Kurt still continued to walk down the hallway with his bag slung around his shoulder.

"Look, I know you're mad at me and Tina and Mercedes for being brash, but you have to admit that it was a little uncalled for that you invited someone I didn't know to my house."

Kurt turned around and paused so quickly that Rachel almost ran into him. His professional bitch glare caused Rachel to back up a few steps.

"But I bet if it was a cute guy that you could have turned into your new gay pet you wouldn't have minded, huh? You'd probably have asked for all the juicy details about sex and what kind of corny chick flicks you'd want to watch with him."

Rachel didn't say anything, she just stared at Kurt with her big brown eyes.

"I know I was harsh," she said, "He just...scares me a little. I apologize."

"Yeah?" Kurt rolled his eyes. He could tell Rachel was pretending to act way more innocent than she actually was so that she could get more sympathy. Kurt wasn't going to play the "comfort the misfit girl" game anymore. "Maybe you should apologize to Blaine."

With that, Kurt stormed down the hallway, already feeling angry on his first day back at school. Why did his friends have to be such idiots sometimes?

History class came, the one class that Kurt had with Blaine other than lunch. He was excited to actually go to class, but of course, Blaine wasn't sitting in his seat. He was probably late to class again or skipping, like he always did.

About ten seconds after the bell rang to indicate the beginning of a new class, Blaine came rushing in with his duct-tape concealed back pack hanging from one shoulder, his hair a wild mess, and the laces on one of his sneakers untied.

Even though Ms. Bernard's back was facing the blackboard scribbling the History exam review, and even though Blaine was being as quiet as he could to enter the room and take his seat one chair over from Kurt, she still sighed, "Nice of you to join us, Mr. Anderson. You'll need to fill out a late slip at the end of class."

"What can I say?" Blaine shrugged. "I've been fashionably late." He winked at Kurt and plopped down in his seat.

After class, Kurt and Blaine walked together to their lockers since it was almost lunch. The hallways flooded with students scurrying to their next class.

"So, how was your morning?" Kurt asked as he spun the combination on his lock.

Blaine shrugged. "It was alright. One of your girlfriends tried to give me a lecture today. Y'know, the asian one who kind of dresses like a 60's goth?"

"Tina?" Kurt asked. What the hell was she doing talking to Blaine?

"Well..." Blaine began. "She was bugging the hell out of me during math, poking me and shit, and when I finally turned to her she got all pale in the face and backed off. Like, if you're gonna bother me, you might as well talk to me. Anyway, she started talking about New Year's and how she was sorry and all that. She was like, 'I didn't mean it and I hope we can both be cool with Kurt about this.' Whatever. I just shrugged."

"At least she apologized," Kurt said. "Then again...Rachel tried to apologize to me this morning. I'm still mad at all of them. Those girls."

"If you're mad at them because of me, like I said, I don't really give a damn what they think. I'm the walking and talking epitome of emotionless. I'm like a male, badass version of Daria. Anything those girls say wouldn't mean anything to me."

Kurt smiled. "I know you're not emotionless."

"Maybe not with you, but definitely with other people. Why are you still mad at them?"

"Because they insulted the both of us," Kurt said. "It isn't fair that they're able to kiss their boyfriend's in the halls and call me to talk about their problems, but then if something interesting happens to me, then it's bad."

"It's just because of me," Blaine shoved a hand in his left pocket and started to walk down the hall with Kurt at his side.

"Do you think it's because they're scared of you?"

Blaine shrugged. "I don't think they're scared, just intimidated. You know how many rumors about me have been going around the school since day one? I've been to juvie 4 times, I fucked a blind virgin in exchange for a soda, I smoke pot and drink with Principal Figgins in the bathroom after school...all that fake bullshit."

"I'm just dreading going to glee," Kurt whined. "I really need to concentrate on regionals and all I'm going to be hearing the whole time is people asking me about you and I."

"Ignore them. Puckerman and Lopez I can understand since their sex lives probably suck anyway and they want to suck all the details out of you they can. But people like the big-nosed Jew and asian and Aretha aren't worth your time if they won't properly apologize to you and leave you alone."

"I guess you're right," Kurt said after a long moment of silence.

"Course I am. Now lets go, I'm starving."

Kurt was worried. Had he been too hard on his friends? He was still hurt and mad at his friends. He didn't want to be treated like a child who was making all the wrong choices because he knew Blaine better than anyone and he'd know if he was making the wrong choices. Should he continue to ignore Rachel, Mercedes and Tina? Should he just forgive them without any true desire to and then live the rest of his life with those girls in fear of his boyfriend?

_AN: Sorry that this was really plotless but I'm having a lot of writers block lately. I don't really have a true idea of where this story is going and I really wish I did. So it will be a rocky road from here on out. Also, sorry if this is kind of anti-Hummelberry. This is an unpopular opinion, but I can't STAND the hummelberry friendship on the show. I think Rachel is too self-centered and isn't a very good friend to Kurt. I've only written them as friends previously because they are in canon._


	33. Stare

_AN: I am about 60% sure that I mentioned Karofsky not being a threat to Kurt earlier in the story, but I want to change that since I'm running out of ideas. He makes an appearance and is less than kind to Kurt. Sorry to any Karofsky lovers but I want to bring him back into a story. I try not to always make him the villain, but there are multiple villains in this story (Blaine's mom, some of the glee club members, and I might introduce Sebastian later if I feel like it.) I hope everyone is okay with that._

Quitting smoking was hard. It wasn't even that Kurt had told him to stop smoking, Blaine just thought that maybe he should cut down on the amount he had during school hours and save the actual smoking for late at night when he was alone in his room. Kurt didn't really like the smell of nicotine mixed with a thousand chemicals, but he never said anything about it to Blaine. Blaine thought it was kind of nice that Kurt didn't nag him about quitting. Blaine also sometimes smoked pot, but he never did it during school hours behind someone's car or in the bathroom, because getting high at school was one of the most distracting things ever. He knew from experience.

Blaine never even smoked pot that often and he didn't think of it as a harmful substance. He wasn't even addicted to it (can you even get addicted to pot?) and though he'd tried other drugs too, he wasn't addicted to those either. Pot was just Blaine's way to get high and listen to Pink Floyd and The Smiths on his beat-up phone while his mom snored away on the sofa. It was another form in the art of losing himself.

Blaine's favorite way of losing himself was in the company of Kurt. He'd been spending a lot of time over at Kurt's house (well, not at the moment since Kurt was still grounded) because he felt more welcomed there than at his own house where his mother was practically attached to the couch at her hip at this point. Whether it was doing homework next to Kurt, driving in the car with him, seeing him in the hallway at school or making out with him, Kurt gave him comfort and allowed him to be himself without trying too hard.

Kurt was currently in glee practice, and Blaine was sitting in his car with his seat lying all the way back, waiting for him. He hadn't seen a lot of Kurt lately since he was grounded, only during the day at school. Blaine had been deciding whether or not to smoke a cigarette when Kurt emerged from the building, carrying his bag. Kurt spotted him and smiled, making his way across the snowy parking lot.

"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked when he slid into the passengers seat. Blaine stretched his back on the reclined seat like a lazy cat and gave Kurt a smile.

"I haven't hung out with you in a while," Blaine said.

"You make it sound like we're frat boys or something," Kurt noted.

"Do you wanna do anything?" Blaine asked. "See a movie, grab coffee, anything?"

"My dad told me I have to come straight home," Kurt wilted. "I'm still grounded and he'll get even angrier if he thinks I went out."

"What day is it today? Thursday?" Blaine asked. Kurt nodded.

"Doesn't your dad work extra hours in the tire shop? He won't even know you're gone."

Kurt raised his eyebrow. "How did you know that?"

"It's on the giant yellow sheet when you first walk into the shop," Blaine stated obviously. "Please? I missed you."

Kurt quirked his lips, considering. "You're a bad influence on me, Blaine Anderson."

"I have that charming effect on people," Blaine smirked.

"Okay," Kurt finally succumbed to his inevitable fate. "Coffee it is. My coffee machine broke since Finn threw this stupid football at it inside the house and all I've been drinking in the morning are glasses of artificial apple juice."

They drove to the Lima Bean, happy to spend time together. Blaine in the Lima Bean was like a hawk in a room full of mice, but Kurt enjoyed it there so he decided to suggest it. Luckily, it wasn't super packed with people they knew from school.

After Kurt and Blaine bought their coffee (a grande non-fat mocha for Kurt and a medium drip for Blaine, even though he rarely drank coffee) and sat down at a table nearest to the windows.

"So," Blaine said, folding his hands jokingly like he was a sophisticated, rich student who always drank coffee and read with eyeglasses. "What have you been up to besides cramming for the History exam?"

"That's all I _have_ been able to do," Kurt sighed. "My dad hasn't been letting me do anything. Not that I blame him. In fact, my heart is kind of beating out of control right now. I feel like I'm defying my dad."

"Don't worry. There are worse things you could do than just go get a coffee after school. You don't do what I do."

"And what are you referring too?" Kurt asked warily.

"Smoke, drink, curse at my mom. I used to be getting fucked up before I started dating you." Blaine paused, flinching at his own words. 'Sorry. You probably didn't want to hear that."

"It's fine," Kurt said.

"For the record," Blaine said, leaning across the table like he was telling a secret, "It's a nice change, being in a relationship for once. Plus, I'm having one with like, the most interesting kid in all of Ohio."

Kurt smiled bashfully, the heat of his cheeks matching the temperature of his coffee.

They sat and talked for a few more minutes, draining their coffee's and listening to the hummed conversations surrounding them. Kurt was enjoying himself, or at least as much fun as someone can have while out getting a coffee, when he spotted someone from across the room.

Karofksy was sitting in the corner with another jock and a blonde cheerleader. It didn't even look like they were eating or drinking anything, just loitering, which irked Kurt. Kurt half-wondered if they were discussing times which they should meet up for a scheduled threesome or something. Just then, Karofsky looked up, bored from his conversation and locked eyes with Kurt, Kurt was about to look away when he noticed that Karofsky...well, wasn't looking away at all. His gaze looked blank and emotionless, and it put Kurt into a death grip that he couldn't stop looking at.

"...Kurt? Are you even listening?" Blaine waved a hand in front of Kurt's face and broke him out of his staring contest.

"Hmm? What?" Kurt's head snapped back to Blaine with wide eyes.

'What were you looking at?" Blaine twisted around in his seat to turn around, but Kurt smacked him on the hand.

"Don't look right away!" Kurt hissed. "That'll seem totally obvious!"

"What?" Blaine whipped back around in his seat.

"It's nothing. It's just...Karofksy."

"Oh," Blaine's tone of voice switched to a flat sound. "Is he one of those assholes who keeps bugging you? I haven't been at McKinley long enough to know him."

"Yeah...sort of," Kurt looked down at the table. "He's been laying off me more, and now that I'm with you they don't really bother me as much anymore, but I mean...there will always be times when I will just look across the hall or something and he'll be staring at me without any facial expressions. It just...really freaks me out. I'm afraid he'll just come up to me and start picking on me again."

Blaine pressed his lips into a thin line. "What has he ever done to you before all this eye gazing crap?"

Kurt shrugged. "The usual. Locker slams and insults, slushying the glee club. It happened more often before you were around, though."

"I should say something to him," Blaine's eyes averted from Kurt to the window, speaking more to himself than to Kurt.

"No, I don't want you getting involved, and if he isn't physically touching me, than there's nothing we can do to make him stop."

"He's intimidating you, Kurt," Blaine huffed out angrily. "Wanna know what I think he's doing? Here's my theory: okay, so all the muscle headed-jocks think I'm too annoying to pick on, either that or they're scared of me, so they stay away. And now that I'm with you, they're backing off from you too. So the only way they can still get a thrill out of making you uncomfortable is to give these creepy glares and make you feel like they want to hurt you."

"That...sounds like a reasonable theory," Kurt agreed. "But Blaine, please, just please don't get involved. Them staring at me is a lot better than them beating me up. And I don't want you to get in trouble with the school or worse, the police if anything happens."

Blaine still didn't look convinced. Kurt sighed and took his hand from across the table.

"The best thing that you can do for me is just _be_ with me," Kurt said honestly. "Me spending time with you takes a lot of stress off of my mind. Maybe we're even over analyzing this too much. All I need to know is that you're with me."

Blaine took in Kurt's words and smiled slightly after. "Alright. I won't get involved. But babe, you need to believe that if it starts getting bad again, and I mean worse than just them looking at you, then I _will_ be there and I _will_ stop it."

"I don't doubt it."

Kurt and Blaine finished their coffee's. As Blaine waited or Kurt to do up the buttons on his coat, he scanned the room in search of Karofsky. He was absentmindedly nodding away at some conversation he was having with a cheerleader and another jock, not even paying attention as his eyes shifted from Kurt to Blaine. Blaine stared back at him, merciless and unafraid. If he was trying to do this little staring technique on him too, then it wouldn't work. Blaine had the talented ability to change his eyes from small puppy to burning rage in a matter of seconds. It was something he was most proud of and it worked well when buying cigarettes and alcohol.

Blaine wrapped his arm firmly around Kurt's waist as they exited the Lima Bean, his eyes still locked on Karofksy's.

_AN: Too bad K and B don't really know why Karofksy is staring at Kurt all the time. By the way, I recently finished reading Warm Bodies and I saw the movie and LOVED IT. OMG. The movie was so similar to the book and it kept the overall theme/message, which I'm glad they did because most books-to-movies adaptions make it all tweeny to appeal to fans. But it was perfect. Nicholas Hoult was an adorable R and the girls who played Julie and Nora were amazing too. I typically hate zombies but this was such an amazing twist and its more about social commentary/humanity than it is about zombies. I definitely recommend reading the book/watching the movie for anyone looking for something new!_


	34. Loss

_AN: Well, Come What May made me cry my eyes out because it was so so so so SO beautiful and well sung and UGH. I loved it when Kurt reached out and hugged Blaine at the end of the song. Adam came off as a little bit clingy and desperate to me but I don't hate him. He's a nice guy, I just think he needs to give Kurt some time alone so he can figure things out, not crowding him and asking him to go to movies when he's clearly upset. Also, I wanted to say that I will be participating in this years Klaine week. It starts on Monday, March 11th and ends Sunday, March 17th, so I'll be starting a separate story full of one-shots on Monday. If you would like to participate, PM me if you want to know any more details._

Blaine arrived home at about 4:30 pm after he dropped Kurt at home. Luckily, Burt was still working in the shop and didn't know about Kurt returning home late.

Blaine came home and kicked his boots off as soon as he got inside his house. The front entrance of his house appeared normal, but as he walked closer and closer to the living room, he could smell the faint traces of alcohol and cigarettes. Blaine stood in the threshold to the living room and stared at his mother, lying down on the couch. Her signature pose.

"What are you doing home?" Blaine asked her, his arms crossed.

"I live here," she replied, not even looking at him as she took a long drag from her cigarette. A blood-red halo of lipstick appeared on the filter from where he mouth had been.

"What are you doing home so early?" Blaine said, ignoring his mother's sarcasm. "You normally don't come home until seven."

"And you don't normally come home until after midnight."

"Shut up and answer my question."

Angela Anderson picked up her clear glass from off the floor, swirled it around so that the ice clinked together, and took a long sip before looking up at the ceiling with emotionless, still eyes.

"I was fired."

Blaine stared at her.

"They said I didn't do any work. Said I was the laziest worker they'd ever had in years. Cynical motherfuckers."

He was surprised. Why was he so surprised? He should have seen this coming. His mother was a terrible mess. This was bound to happen sooner or later. So why was Blaine in such shock?

"Oh well," Angela sighed.

"What the fuck do you propose we do about this?" Blaine said.

"It's not my problem anymore," she replied.

"It_ is_ your problem. You've stopped making money. You need a job. We're already living in shitty conditions because of you."

"Shut the fuck up, you little brat," Angela snapped. "If you're so concerned, why don't you find your own job? Oh wait...that's right. Because no place would ever consider taking you. To me, you're a reminder of your bastard of a father. To everyone else, you're nothing."

Blaine paused before he spoke again. Honestly, these comments didn't even really bother Blaine that much since he heard them all the time, but Angela had sounded like she really meant it. "How do you not care about this?"

Angela didn't respond. She just lay her head down into the worn out sofa of the couch and let the cigarette dangle between her gnarled, yellowed fingernails.

Blaine couldn't believe this. He marched on upstairs to his room and shut the door, sitting down on his bed. His mother had just lost her job, and even though she barely made any money, it was still enough to get by. Now, there was nothing. The worst part was that she didn't even care.

Blaine hopped off his bed and started to search through his closet. His closet was pretty messy, despite the rest of his room being clean. Papers and old cigarette cartons fell from within the shelf, but Blaine finally found what he was looking for: his resume outline worksheet he did in his careers class in his sophomore year at Dalton. He never thought he would actually have to use this, but now was a handy time.

In his careers class, one of the assignments he had to do was create a fake resume and bring it to a mock interview. It was supposed to prepare him for the future in case he went to a real job interview and needed to show a resume. Since this resume was just a fake one, he practically bullshitted the entire thing: he made up all of his qualification skills, awards, and previous work experiences simply because Blaine had never done any of those things before. Since Blaine was an almost straight A student, he got an excellent mark on his fake resume. Now, however, he needed it to be as real as possible.

Using his phone, he typed up a very under processed version of his resume and sent it to his email to print out at school. He could try his best to fix it up, but right now...he really, really needed a job. He could care less about his own mother, but right now, he needed to provide and fend for himself. Even if it was a job that payed almost nothing, he needed to at least be making _something._

Blaine's neighborhood was a complete mess. Burnouts and abusive couples lived all around him, and as terrible as his home life was, he couldn't risk he and his mother being removed from their house by being unable to pay the bills. He couldn't risk being sent away somewhere once people found out about how his mother neglected him, couldn't risk being sent to another school, being away from Kurt-

Blaine stopped. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. There was no way he could tell Kurt about this. If he did, then Kurt's compassionate, generous heart would get his entire family involved, offering Blaine money and all these great things Blaine didn't deserve. Blaine had already felt more at home with Kurt's family than with his own and there was no way he could mix the two. Hell would occur.

He just needed to believe that everything was going to be okay for now. Things for Blaine had been going well up until this moment. This was just something he needed to conquer. But for someone as internally insecure and as unconfident as Blaine, it was certainly not going to b easy.

_AN: Yes, I had to do what Blaine did in his careers class. I actually don't know if people in the US have careers classes, because I'm from Canada and I do, but my teacher told us that they have those classes there. If not, sorry. Once again, if yu have any questions about Klaine Week 2013 then feel free to ask!_


	35. Fight

_AN: I know this is a little late, but AVPSY was amazing! I cried so hard at the end, the music was great and they all did a great job considering it wasn't actually a real show, only a reading. I love Starkid so much and I can't wait for Twisted in the summer!_

Just as Blaine predicted, he couldn't find a job.

There weren't even interviews. There was no one who wanted to take Blaine in because of how he looked. Even when Blaine wore his dress shirts instead of his regular clothes and tried his best not to be too sarcastic or rude, no one would take him. Blaine's mother was jobless, he was jobless, and there was a possibility that Blaine would be losing his house.

Kurt could tell that there was something up with Blaine in the past week or so. He didn't say anything at first because Blaine was moody like that sometimes. But it wasn't a rude or mean type of moody...it was more like Blaine was constantly on the edge of his seat. He didn't want to talk about much. It was a peculiar way for Blaine to be acting; like he was worried all the time. That's why when one day, when they were hanging out at Kurt's house after school, Kurt pressed as gently as he could to find out what was wrong.

"Hey, Blaine?" Kurt asked. Blaine was sitting cross legged on Kurt's bed, playing with the strings of his hoodie. He hadn't said anything for the past five minutes.

"Yeah?" Blaine didn't look up from the strings.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You're asking me something now, aren't you?" Blaine said, not unkindly.

"Yes, well," Kurt began. "I don't want to...pry or anything, but you've been kind of quiet lately..."

Blaine looked up in a deadpanned expression.

"...And usually when you get quiet it's because you're either really mad or keeping something," Kurt continued. "Is there anything you want to talk to me about?"

Blaine stared at him. "No. There's nothing wrong. What made you think that?"

"You're just so quiet."

"I'm always quiet."

"Blaine."

"What? I am."

"No, you're not. We both know that. You only get quiet when something is wrong, and whenever we go out now...I kind of feel like there's this giant cloud of awkward consuming me."

"I thought we were one of those couples that could enjoy each other's silence?" Blaine went back to fidgeting with his hoodie strings.

"We are," Kurt said, and shifted closer to Blaine on the bed. "We can be. When we want to. But not all the time."

"Well, nothing's wrong, okay?" Blaine sighed.

"But I can tell there is," Kurt tried to mask the desperateness in his voice. All he wanted to do was find out what was wrong with Blaine, because if something was making him angry or upset, Kurt wanted to do everything he could to try and make it stop.

"Well, whatever. Your instinct is wrong," Blaine shot back. "If something is wrong, I'll tell you, okay?"

It got silent, Blaine continuing to pick at his hoodie strings. Kurt watched him with scrutinizing eyes, trying to find a hidden message in Blaine's face. He was still and solemn.

"Was..." Kurt said. "Did I do something wrong?"

Blaine's head snapped up. "No. God no, Kurt, it wasn't you."

"So then it _was_ something?" Kurt asked quickly.

"What-I, no," Blaine huffed. "There is nothing wrong with me. Okay?"

"I never said there was something wrong with _you_. I just asked if something was bothering you."

"There isn't," Blaine said, and Kurt knew he'd pushed a wrong button because Blaine was getting defensive now. "But let's say there _was_ something wrong. If it was something that was bothering me so much, wouldn't it be my choice to tell you or not? Some things are meant to be kept personal, Kurt."

Kurt flinched, but then he felt himself grow a little angry. "I'm not trying to pry your business or anything. But as your boyfriend, I feel obligated to ask you if something is wrong."

"Maybe you're not the best at reading people, then?" Blaine shrugged.

"You're right, I'm not," Kurt said. "I'm not a psychic or a mind reader. But I just feel like I know when the person I care about most is feeling upset about something."

Blaine felt a pang of guilt in his chest when Kurt thought of him as someone worth caring about, let alone the person he cared about _most_. He watched Kurt's innocent, blue eyes face and wished he could tell him the truth, but he knew that if he did, Kurt would get even more worried than Blaine already was. He would get his family involved and try to find a new place for Blaine to live...not to mention Blaine's mother would probably be facing a lot of trouble.

He couldn't do it.

And quite frankly, Kurt's stubbornness was making Blaine a little angry.

"I'd..." Blaine started. "Better go."

He moved to get off of Kurt's bed, and Kurt scoffed. "So that's that? You're not even going to tell me what's wr-"

"_Nothing_ is wrong, for christ sakes!" Blaine nearly shouted. "Maybe I'm just getting tired of hearing you accuse me of stuff I never did."

"You're extra asshole today," Kurt said, annoyed.

"Yeah? That's just me everyday."

Blaine started to walk out of Kurt's room before Kurt stood up and started to speak.

"No it isn't, Blaine. Look, if I did anything, then I'm sorry, but if you don't tell me why you've gone all mopey, then I can't help."

"So what?" Blaine said. "I'm not allowed to have any other emotion other than happy? I'm not a fucking robot."

"You are _so_ twisting my words. I've seen you in plenty other emotions than just happy. You're sometimes cocky, rude, immature, snarky-"

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Blaine said.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Let me ask you again. Did I do something wrong?"

"No-"

"Are you cheating on me? Am I not giving you enough intimacy? Because I can do that right now if you want."

Blaine felt like he'd been back handed across the face. Kurt didn't say this flirtatiously, he said it desperately, like he'd do anything to make Blaine not so angry.

"What-no, Kurt, of _course_ not," Blaine said. "I'm not cheating on you and I don't need you to give me anything more than what we're doing right now. I'm-"

"Not that kind of monster, I know," Kurt finished for him. "You've said it a million times. So if it isn't me, then what is it? Is it school?"

"I'm nearly a straight A student."

"Then what is it?" Kurt pleaded.

"You know what? I think I need to stop for a minute."

"Stop what?" Kurt asked, clearly irritated. "This conversation?"

"Yeah, that's it. The conversation that's clearly about you trying to find out something that doesn't exist."

"I'm just trying to hel-"

"Well, you're not, Kurt," Blaine said, his voice enforcing that the discussion was over. "You're not doing anything other than annoying the hell out of me right now. Okay? Alright?"

Kurt just stared at Blaine. He was a mixture of anger, hurt, and worried. But it was clear that Blaine didn't want to say anything right now. Kurt just thought that Blaine trusted him enough by now to tell him what was wrong and why they barely talked to each other on dates now.

"Fine," Kurt said, looking at the floor with a rigid jaw. "I guess you can go now."

Kurt felt Blaine's eyes on his face linger for a few moments more, before his door opened and slammed shut. Kurt sank to the floor and lay his head on his knees. That was the first real time that Blaine had gotten angry with Kurt, other than the time where Kurt confronted Blaine in the choir room and they played piano together. That and now were the only times Kurt felt like Blaine was truthfully done with Kurt. He just wished he knew why.

_AN: I might add some Karofsky stuff in the next chapter, but I'm not too sure yet. I do want to end this fic soon though, but knowing me, I'll probably stretch it out into more chapters just because I'm lazy like that._


	36. Dilemma

_AN: Wow. The most recent episode of glee was terrifying. The cinematography, the silence and the acting from this episode made it seem so much more bone-chilling. I was so scared for Britt when she was trapped in the bathroom and the Sue and Becky thing is a serious dilemma. I actually think glee managed to pull it off. Oh and this is a very short chapter!_

Blaine began smoking again regularly. It had been about two days since his and Kurt's fight, and they didn't really know how to talk over it. Kurt was right: there was something wrong with Blaine, and it frustrated Blaine that Kurt knew.

A strange tension settled upon Kurt and Blaine. They were afraid to talk to each other after the fight. In the hallways, when they passed by each other, they would make awkward eye-contact and quickly look away. They never talked, never called or texted, and Blaine found himself never at Kurt's house after school anymore. Burt would always ask Kurt, "Did you break up?" and Kurt would reply, "I don't know."

And if things couldn't get any worse for Blaine, he couldn't find a job. Not anywhere. Not even at the Lima Bean. He didn't know if it was because people purposefully didn't want to give him a job due to the way he looked and acted or if it was because there were genuinely no jobs. Either way, Blaine's anxiety and stress levels grew everyday. He was forced to wake up in a house that he knew could be taken away from him if he didn't do anything. His mother was indifferent to the situation, as always.

Glee practices were every Tuesday and Thursday after school, and on his way out, Blaine would walk by the choir room He could hear muffled singing voices and instruments. He never looked inside in fear that Kurt might see him, but he always forced himself to walk by just because.

On Wednesday morning, something strange happened.

Kurt was standing at his locker with Mercedes, talking about how Regionals was coming up in about two months and if they would make it to Nationals or not when Kurt could feel a strong gaze settle upon him. Since Kurt was used to being bullied, he'd developed a new talent: the ability to tell when someone was getting too close to him without even turning around. He was sure every bullying victim had this sixth sense.

Kurt turned around, and standing across the hall from him was Karofsky.

He didn't know where all of these stares were coming from recently. Karofsky sort of lay off Kurt in the physical sense. The locker slams and tosses stopped after Kurt began hanging out with Blaine so much, but Karofsky never failed to deliver Kurt creepy stares when he thought he wasn't looking. But these stares didn't look like they were supposed to be menacing or "I'm going to kill you" kind of stare. It was more like he was observing Kurt, collecting information and shipping it off to his brain. And that...that's what made it all the more terrifying.

"Kurt?" Mercedes said. "...Are you even listening to me?"

Kurt drew his eyes away from behind Mercedes where Karofsky was standing and said, "Sorry, what?"

The next time Kurt looked up, Karofsky was gone.

_AN: I'm sorry the chapter was so short, I've been spending the whole weekend packing for a school music trip to Philadelphia and I won't be back until Saturday, but I didn't want to leave without posting nothing. The next chapter will be longer, I promise._


	37. Unwanted

_AN: I got tickets to go see Darren in Toronto on June 12th! I'm so excited :) But I was so disappointed with the glee season finale and I didn't even expect to be HAPPY during what pisses me off is that we haven't been getting a lot of reaction from Kurt (besides the very small scene when Blaine asked him to stay for regionals and Kurt thought it was gonna be a date) and other than that we never get to hear from KURT, just people speaking over him and I'm tired of it. Give Kurt some screen time where he can talk about his feelings for Blaine like I'm so done with Blaine glancing over at Kurt and Kurt not saying anything. But watch, in season 5 they will magically be all over each other again because apparently when you break up on glee, you go months without talking to each other and then one day you're suddenly making out and having sex without explanation. SO disappointed. Sorry for the long update!_

You never expect crazy things to happen to you so quickly during the day. When you get hurt or cry, you never really think back to the time you woke up that morning and think, "I wonder if I'll get hurt or cry today." Everything happened so fast.

It was a blur of color and sound that occurred within a five minute time span. One minute, Kurt was feeling normal, and the next, he was shaking with a bruised hand, bloody lips and a very angry Blaine by his side.

**EARLIER**

The feeling of not talking to Blaine was starting to settle in, but not in a good way. Kurt didn't want to surrender himself to being silent with Blaine all the time, however it was getting easier to remind himself not to talk to him, if that made sense. It'd been a little over one week since they actually talked or texted.

They were both feeling it. They both wanted to talk to each other desperately, but since they were both too stubborn to say anything, nothing happened. It was like they were almost to shy or scared to say something on top of being stubborn. Were they a couple still?

Blaine hated that word. "Couple." It reminded him of parents.

So they walked the halls and shared uncomfortable glances while trying not to get caught staring at each other, and it was the most awkward and confining Kurt had ever felt.

That afternoon, after most of the students went home, glee club rehearsal was going on in the choir room. They needed to practice for Regionals (even though Mr. Schue insisted on having a new theme for songs every week and they ended up picking songs for Regionals 4 days before the competition), but Kurt wasn't feeling it. He hadn't been feeling it for the past week, and people began to notice.

"What's the matter?" asked Mercedes quietly when Mr. Schue was giving a lecture.

"Nothing," Kurt replied with a blank face.

"I know it ain't nothing," Mercedes said. "You don't look like yourself, Kurt."

"Something with Blaine," Kurt shrugged. "It's not a big deal though."

"Blaine? Why, did you guys break up?"

"No. Well, I don't know actually."

"Did you guys get into a fight?"

"Kind of..." Kurt sighed. "It's a long story. We just got mad at each other and now we don't know how to start talking to each other."

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. For real? You both need to stop acting like babies and just talk to each other so you can get it over with! Quit tip-toeing around the lines like that. That boy probably sprays his cheap leather jacket from _Macy's_ with your cologne because he misses you at night like a puppy."

"I'm going to the bathroom," Kurt ignored Mercedes's comment, even though he knew secretly that she was right. He got up and excused himself from the class without asking permission.

Kurt didn't really need to use the bathroom. He knew Blaine always waited for him near the bleachers after every glee rehearsal, and he was beginning to get annoyed from their little silent-staring contest. He needed to find Blaine and talk to him.

But before he could even make it outside, he suddenly felt a heavy hand grab his shoulder from behind and start to pull him backwards. Before he could say anything, he was being pulled into one of the boys locker rooms and he felt his back slam up against something cold.

Kurt found himself face-to-face with a certain football player.

"K-Karofsky?" Kurt said, confused. Why was David Karofsky of all people cornering him in the middle of the boys locker room?

When Karofsky said nothing, it made Kurt feel increasingly more uncomfortable. Even though Karofsky was one of Kurt's former bullies, he'd stopped and never really did anything anymore to intimidate of hurt Kurt. And while Kurt didn't necessarily _like_ him, he didn't hate him, because at least he stopped with the harassing.

"Um," Kurt muttered, "What are you-"

"Why do you like that faggot so much?"

Kurt flinched, not at the use of "faggot", because he was already so used to hearing that word, but of how Karofsky cut him off in such a low, almost whispered voice.

"What?"

"Why do you hang around with a faggot like that?" Karofsky spat. "He's the last person I expected you to be messing around with."

Once the initial shock wore off, Kurt realized that Karofsky had to be referring to Blaine.

"First of all, we are not messing around," Kurt shot back. "Second, that's none of your business why I'm with him."

Karofsky's beady eyes analyzed Kurt's face, and Kurt tried to conceal his gulp.

"Why are you even talking to me anyways?" Kurt asked. "What's you're-"

Kurt was cut off abruptly when he felt a pair of strong lips slam themselves to his.

At first, Kurt didn't make sense of what was happening. All he saw was a blur and the feeling of something tugging and prying his mouth open, and that's when he realized Karofksy was kissing him.

Panic and confusion ran through Kurt's blood and turned it cold. Kurt shoved Karofsky away with as much force as he could so that the heavier boy stumbled back a few steps, however it still wasn't enough distance to give Kurt the space he needed.

"What the hell is _wrong_ with you?" Kurt squeaked, his arms wrapped protectively around his torso. Before he could say anything else, however, Karosky stepped in closer to him and slammed him back up against the locker, causing the room to echo with the sound of clattering metal against skin.

"Karofsky, st-" was all Kurt managed to get out before the feeling of Karofsky's thin, chapped lips were back on his. Kurt's heart pounded with fear when Karofsky's sweaty palms started to grope the sides of Kurt's legs and his breathing hitched. Kurt's lips remained unmoving, but his hands were eagerly trying to push the weight pinning him to the lockers.

"Fucking stop it," Karofsky growled into Kurt's mouth, and he pinned Kurt's wrists together with one hand while the other continued to explore the lower half of Kurt's body.

This couldn't be happening. There was no way this could be happening right now. Kurt was seeing through tunnel vision now, so frightened that he thought he might pass out. He didn't want the feeling of the lips currently smothering the side of his neck, he didn't want the heavy breathing down his shirt, and he didn't want the large and heavy hand squeezing him in areas he didn't want to be touched in. Or at least, certainly not touched by Karofsky.

"S-stop," Kurt 's voice quivered, tears threatening to form in his eyes. He'd never felt this afraid before. He thought back to the time when Blaine had first kissed him by the lockers outside, how his body language was slow and gave Kurt the option to to push him away if he wanted to.

Kurt's gasped when teeth bit down on the side of his neck and a strong hand cupped him through his jeans.

"I said _stop_!" Kurt yelled, and gathering up all his strength, he drew his hand back and struck Karofsky across the face as hard as he possibly could. Kurt's fist collided with most of Karofsky's left cheek and most of his eye, and the sound resonated into the room.

"Fuck!" Karofsky cursed, stumbling back again and clutching the side of his face with one hand. Kurt didn't waste any time running as fast as he could out the door and into the hallway, clutching the hand that he'd punched Karosky with.

Kurt nearly slipped and fell over on the linoleum floors, running down the hallway, trying to get as far away from the boys locker room as he could. Even though Kurt wasn't out of breath, his chest heaved and his breath came out in irregular bursts of panicked gasps.

Kurt turned the corner and immediately slammed into another body. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him and heard a string of curses being let out before he tumbled to the ground, landing on top of another person.

"Kurt?" the voice said, and Kurt knew he would recognize that voice anywhere. "Jesus, ever thought about slowing down?"

Kurt sat up shakily on his knees, still clutching his wrists and trembling from all the different things that just happened in the past seven minutes. Blaine sat up casually like nothing was wrong, until he saw the look or horror on Kurt's face and the tremble in his body.

"Oh my god," Blaine breathed, and before Kurt could even turn to face Blaine, he felt a pair of strong and warm hands gently but firmly grasping the sides of his face. "Kurt, what the hell happened to you?"

That was all Kurt needed to be able to break down and burst into tears. He felt the hot liquid running down his face before he let out the first sob. That was also all Blaine needed to jump into action and tug Kurt into his chest.

"Kurt," Blaine half-whispered, "Baby, baby, what happened? Why are you crying?"

Kurt needed a few moments to compose himself. Blaine allowed him to just sit there in the middle of the hall and cry until he felt well enough to actually form coherent sentences.

"Breathe," Blaine told him, and Kurt obeyed, forcing himself to take deep breaths. He lifted his non-injured hand and wiped the tears away with the back of his sleeve.

"What happened to your hand?" Blaine grabbed Kurt's wrists and saw the blue bruises that were starting to form across his knuckles. Blaine gently began to rub his fingers back and forth across the bruised surface of Kurt's skin. As terrible as Kurt was feeling right now, he had to admit that Blaine was making him feel a little better so far.

"I'm sorry," Kurt whimpered before sobbing once.

"Don't apologize for anything," Blaine told him. "Just tell me what happened."

Blaine rubbed Kurt's back gently as he spoke. "I-I was in glee rehearsal and I came outside to look for you," Kurt admitted. "And, u-um, I started walking down the hall and I felt someone grab me from behind..."

Kurt explained everything, and somehow managed to avoid using Karofksy's name for the entire story. He didn't want to say his name. By the end of Kurt's story, Blaine looked furious, like he would tear down the walls of McKinley high and then set the remains on fire. But behind the anger, there was a deep layer of concern for Kurt.

"Who was it?" Blaine asked.

"I-I don't want to say," Kurt whined.

"Baby," Blaine said gently, "You know I don't mean to pressure you, but you need to tell me who it was. That's the only way I can help you."

"It was Karofsky," Kurt whispered.

"...What?" Blaine huffed in disbelief.

"Karofsky. He k-kissed me," Kurt said. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the feeling of Blaine's hands on his own. Speaking of which, his hand started to throb a little uncomfortably from the blow. He didn't think it was broken, just sore.

"I'll fucking kill him," Blaine's voice was murderous. Kurt's eyes flew open.

"No!" Kurt cried. "No, please don't get involved, Blaine. Please, he'll kill you."

"Not if I kill him first," Blaine said. "He _hurt_ you, Kurt. He...he sexually assaulted you and you think I'm just gonna sit here and let him get away with doing this to you?"

Blaine grabbed Kurt's face and looked deep into his blue eyes. "There's no way in hell I'm letting that son of a bitch touch you like that ever again. But you have to understand, Kurt, that I'm getting involved."

"Couldn't we just tell the principal of something? Oh god, my dad is going to freak out, he's already sick-"

Blaine pressed a soft kiss to Kurt's lips, and after a week without it, the feeling felt like home. Blaine pulled away and kissed Kurt's forehead.

"Hey," Blaine said. "What's with your hand?"

"I punched him," Kurt explained.

"In the face?"

"Yeah."

Blaine smirked and kissed Kurt's nose. "That's my boy."

_AN: There will be more Karofsky stuff in the next chapter._


End file.
